I wanna go home 2! Ya hear?
by Lizardios
Summary: I get warped into FF7 by my PS2... My life could be alright, had I not merged bodies with my pet lizard, giving me a new body, another personality in my mind, AND living through what was supposed to be a video game. Chapter 29 up
1. Unforeseen Events

Disclaimer: I own nothing, yadda yadda yadda. I will not be saying this again.

For those new to the story, this is a spin-off of the work of another author. Yes, I had her permission, yes, I am friends with her... well, I wasn't when I first got permission, but that has since changed. If you want to read the tale this is based off of, try looking within my favourite stories list for 'I Wanna Go Home'.

For those of you not new to this tale, yes, I've extended and improved this chapter, along with a couple of others. Eventually, I will have gone through all of them to rectify any grammar mistakes.

* * *

Jethro Logan presents:

I Wanna Go Home 2: Ya Hear?

Chapter 1: Unforeseen Events

The teenage girl entered her home, cursing the weather, and the fact that she'd chosen to wear a white t-shirt on this day, of all days. Rain plus white t-shirt equaled not good, in her honest opinion. Obviously, most teenage boys would be inclined to disagree, but then, to say that teenage boys are generally perverts would have been an understatement. She shut the door behind her, and moved to the kitchen, noting that, as usual, she was the first one home. Ignoring a note from her mother, she treated herself to some chocolate chip ice cream, before retreating from the room.

Her next destination was her bedroom. Inspecting her admittedly small collection of Playstation titles, she mentally recalled how her day had gone.

"Life sucks." She muttered to herself, grabbing her copy of Final Fantasy 8.

Putting the first disc into her games console, she started the game, and shortly after, Maggie Thomas vanished from our world.

That was a day ago...

* * *

At the time, I knew nothing of Maggie, or what had happened to her. If I'd heard about what happened to her, I probably would have laughed it off. Being sucked into video games is the stuff of dreams and imagination. As much as one can dream about such an event, it was unlikely to ever happen.

Was I ever proven wrong?

My tale started a world away from where Maggie's began. A small country famous for its typically dreary weather to be exact. Yeah, England. The United Kingdom. Lovely place, on those few occasions that the sun actually decides to show itself. I prefer the colder weather myself, not being able to feel the cold has its perks, after all. But my adventure began across the Atlantic Ocean, a day after Maggie's mysterious disappearance, at the south coast of the UK, just as I was leaving my school. Well, on my way home from school.

* * *

I trudged slowly home from school, the sun deliberately aiming its rays at me, as I ignored various taunts from my peers. My god, I'm making a big deal out of this, aren't I? Who wants to hear about me being taunted? it's old news, quite frankly. Look at me, I'm the school geek. Everyone knows my name, and I do not know any of theirs. I honestly can't recall the names of half of the people in my own classes, how the Hell am I supposed to remember the name of every student in the whole damned school? Not bloody likely.

I charged up the hill leading towards my house, cursing God for making the sun so hot. I'm not a religious guy, but I need someone to blame, don't I? And quite frankly, if I didn't know better, I'd blame one of the dogs messing up my house for Nick Frank's antics. Or vice versa.

I banged on the door, waiting for one of my younger siblings to let me in. After about half a minute of nothing happening, except for some poor sap in America getting mugged (but this story isn't about him), I opened the letterbox, and peaked inside. I can always tell whose home just by looking in through the letterbox. Be it from who's bags have been dumped in the corner, or which shoes are near (but not in, never in) the cupboard meant for storing our shoes. Yea, I can tell a lot about my family's status just by a peek through the letterbox. Of course, it isn't something I do often; not after someone shouted out 'stalker!' at me. It's my house, aren't I entitled to peek through the letterbox?

Almost immediately, I released a groan of annoyance. Nobody in, I could tell, because the kitchen door was shut, keeping the 4 dogs inside. That and all the other things I mentioned. No shoes to be seen and no bags in the corner. Great, the one time I forget my house key, nobody is in as early as usual... just great. That meant I was probably going to die a very painful death. Kicking the door in annoyance, I moved slowly down the side passage, to the door that was never locked. This door led to a small corridor-like conservatory. It didn't hold much, it was pretty much dedicated to being used as a shed, but it did happen to have the door to the kitchen. The gamble here was a case of whether or not the kitchen door was open. However, I sort of hoped it wasn't open. If it had been shut, there was no key to open it from the outside, thus sparing me from the creature that my dad called a dog. The door was ajar. Open. Sighing, I braced myself for the wraith of the spawn of Satan.

Moving into the kitchen, I looked both ways, and even up and down, trying to find the monster before it found me. I'd prefer to keep my hands attached to the ends of my arms, thank you very much. I can play my video games that way, you see? God, I really am a geek, aren't I? Only wanting to stay alive just so I can keep playing my games. Well, and to avoid unnecessary pain, can't forget that. Pain is bad, and I don't like it.

At the strange absence of any of the four dogs my family owned, I grinned at the realization that they were in the garden, likely doing their business. Power to them, I suppose. But that means I have a free moment to make myself something to eat. Something that wasn't the load of crap that the school calls a meal. The burgers and curly fries were alright, if you got to them before they sold out. If they were sold out by the time you got to them, the only edible thing left was a tuna and lettuce baguette. Healthy and tasty, but not overly filling for someone who hasn't had any breakfast. If they were sold out of that, then you were screwed. That's why I prefer going home for lunch, but as I mentioned previously, I'd forgotten my key on this hot and sunny day. I was probably lucky I'd even remembered to grab my wallet.

Hastily throwing together a basic sandwich, I opened the door to the utility room, where the fridge was located. Immediately, I slammed it shut, leaning against it. Of all places to take a nap, why did the Hell Spawn decide to do so in front of the fridge? Is it trying to starve me to death now? Either way, now it knows I'm here, and I can hear it growling from the other side of the door. Like that's a surprise; it'll growl at me from downstairs if I walk about **up**stairs. We need to put that thing down, and put it down soon. I do **not** provoke it, as my mother tends to accuse me of doing. Why would I provoke it into almost ripping out the tendrils in my right hand? That was painful...

My current situation meant that I had to leave the kitchen, and promptly. However, if I moved from my position, there would be nothing holding the door shut on the mutt, and he can move so much faster then I can. Then again, I only needed to outrun him for a couple of seconds, and then I'd be out of the kitchen, and I can easily shut the door on it. But then, it might manage to get out of the kitchen in the three second time frame that the kitchen door is open so that I can get out myself.

_Screw it, I'm running._

After a most embarrassing few seconds where I screamed like a girl as I escaped the spawn of Satan, I slumped against the wall. That was a close call... But I was still alive, so therefore, it was a victory. An embarrassing victory, but a victory none-the-less. Now to go and enjoy the sandwich that... I... left... in the kitchen...

Shit.

Well, that was a perfectly good waste of a perfectly good sandwich. No doubt the Thing is feasting itself on **my** snack. Son of a bitch... quite literally, if you really believe that it's a dog. Well... so much for what meager victory I had. No I'll starve until dinner; dinner being whenever my mother gets home to cook the dinner. I heard she was going to do a steak for me today, so at least I'll have something good come out of what has so far been an absolutely crappy day. Well, that and my glorious game console. Lots of good games to play.

Smiling to myself, I ran up the stairs, barging into my bedroom and grabbing the box from under my bed. The box, well, a drawer that no longer had anything to slide in and out of, other than the dark and mysterious realm that was the underside of my bed, contained my large video game library. Pulling the box towards me, I started to read the names of each game, checking them off of my mental check-list, as I searched for a game I felt like playing.

_Orphen? No thanks. San Andreas? Don't feel like killing random people today. Devil May Cry? No to both 1 and 3... Deus ex? Great game, but I don't feel like it at the moment._

I came to the line of Final Fantasy titles and paused, fingers hovering over the 3 PS1 and 2 PS2 cases. I did feel like going on an epic journey to save the world at that moment in time. And it had been a while since I'd played any of the Final Fantasy titles. But which one? Certainly not X-2. I don't even know why I keep that one, oh wait; yes I do, in case I ever feel like actually beating it 100 percent. Unlikely to occur any time soon though. IX? Save Gaia as Zidane and Vivi and co? I'm in more of a modern day setting mood. That left VII or VIII. Cloud or Squall, Buster Sword or Gunblade, AVALANCHE or SeeD... Seven is definitely better in the rest of the world's eyes, but Eight was the first Final Fantasy I ever owned, and that gives it a special place in my heart.

Muttering a quiet 'screw it', I shut my eyes and grabbed a random case. Opening my eyes revealed that today, I'd be beginning my battles against Shinra and Sephiroth. Moving over to my PS2, I ejected the DVD for Hitman Contracts and put in the first disc for Final Fantasy VII. As I waited for the game to startup, I put the Hitman disc back in its home and opened the cage that acted as the home for my pet lizard. The lizard in question, a Water Dragon that I named Spike, moved out from behind one of the rocks that littered the terrarium, part of what made the lizard's home look similar to his natural habitat, and perched himself on my waiting hand. I extracted my hand and stroked Spike's head, lightly, before pushing the button to start new game.

I watched the view of Midgar as the logo came up, revealing the main city of the game. The opening always made Midgar look like a great city to live in, you generally didn't think much of the smoke coming from the structures at the edge of the city until you played the game the first time, where you learnt they were polluting the Planet far worse than any fossil fuels ever could.

"Wish I lived there." I told Spike. "Join AVALANCHE, fight the fight. It would be much better than reality, and being bullied."

Spike, as usual, didn't reply to me. He never did. Still, I liked talking to him. He never judged me for any of my ramblings, and I do tend to ramble a lot.

Looking up from Spike, I noticed that the game seemed to have frozen. It was still stuck on the aerial view of Midgar, logo proudly being displayed for all to see. Cursing, I stood up, keeping a firm grip on Spike to ensure I didn't drop him. Damn. I know that my copy of Final Fantasy VII is old, but I take care of my games, it shouldn't be freezing like this. Grabbing the PS2, I tapped the reset button, hoping that this was a one time kind of thing. It happened with Metal Gear Solid 2, once. It froze at a cutscene once, and then it never happened again.

However, when tapping the reset button failed to do anything, I cursed again, slightly louder. Ok, instead of tapping the button, let's hold the button down. Ten seconds of holding the button, and no stand-by mode later, I was getting annoyed, and anxious that my PS2 might be nearing the end of its life. It **was** a first generation model... well, first generation to sell in the UK. What that came down to though, is that this Playstation 2 is real old. I did get it on release after all. I don't know what the PS2 life expectancy was, and I never did care.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed the eject button. As my finger left the black square with the blue symbol, I began retching. Groaning, I forgot about the Playstation troubles and reeled back, near falling onto my bed, wincing as the slats that held the mattress up collapsed from my weight being thrust upon them. I shut my eyes, continuing to retch. When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was blackness. Oh God, had I gone blind? Please, tell me I haven't gone blind. Another bout of retching had me groaning. Looking down, I saw my bed. Well, that ruled out me being blind, but why can't I see anything in the general direction of my TV and everything else electronic on my room. I could even see the door that was the only exit, unless you were willing to dive out the window, which I wouldn't advise.

I tried to stand up. Once on my feet, I took an unsteady step towards the door, but all feeling left my legs, and I fell. To my surprise, I didn't land on the floor, or if I did, I didn't feel anything. Instead, all that met me was inky blackness, and the strange feeling that I was falling. Somehow, the retching and general crappy feeling faded away. Lifting my hand, I saw that I still held Spike in a firm grip. Loosening my grip, I brought the lizard closer to my face, so I could see him clearly. He looked as he always did, grass green and without a care in the world. After several seconds, the Water Dragon seemed to liquefy, slowly melting.

My heart seemed to jump to my throat, and I felt myself shouting. Had I just killed Spike by carrying him when whatever happened to me happened? The liquid that was once my pet seemed to absorb itself into my flesh. I hoped that this was all just some bad dream, at least that would mean Spike was still alive.

I wasn't prepared for the pain that engulfed my body. It felt like I was set ablaze, all I could do was scream. Around me, through the screams, I could hear echoes, whispers. I paid them no mind; I was too busy trying to cope with this burning sensation that somehow felt familiar. A white light at the end of the tunnel approached, and suddenly, all I could see was white. I sealed my eyes shut, waiting for the nightmare to end.

And end it did.

I opened my eyes, slowly, when I realized that I was no longer moving. What met my eyes was a dark, brick wall. I blinked several times, before it registered, but that was indeed what I was seeing. But why was I seeing such? Shouldn't I be seeing the horrible cream white wallpaper of my bedroom? Groaning, I tried to pick myself up, but failed. Maybe I fainted in the alleys near my home? That would explain the whole freaky dream. I rolled onto my back and cursed. The sky was bitch black. If I had fainted, I was out cold for a real long time, and the alleys aren't secluded to the point where I wouldn't have been found for days. More like, I'd have been found within the hour.

Slowly, I pulled myself to my feet, using the wall for support. I felt pain all over my body. Not a harsh pain, like I'd just been punched, but a dull throbbing, but still hurting. Sort of like the end of a growth spurt, where it doesn't hurt as much, but still lets you know that it's there. That sort of pain.

"That didn't go as planned." A voice behind me grumbled.

I jumped, pivoting around. There, behind me, was a girl, who looked to be around 7 years old, who was frowning at me. It was too dark to make out any of the details of her appearance, but I could tell that she was annoyed. I didn't know who the girl was, so I made to move away, somewhere where I could figure out where I was in peace.

"Don't walk away from me!" The girl called out.

Turning around, I could easily tell that the girl was glaring at me.

"Who are you?" I asked, cautiously.

Something about this girl was off. The fact that a 7 year old sounded so serious was one clue towards that. The girl moved towards me, analyzing me. I shifted uncomfortably; the look she gave was so piercing.

"Did you **have** to be holding your lizard when you came here?" She asked.

It was obviously rhetorical; her tone conveyed plenty of annoyance to tell me that she already had an answer in her mind.

"What does Spike have to do with anything?" I snapped.

"Everything, apparently." She muttered, frown deepening.

"Look, if you have nothing important to say, then I wanna go home. Once I figure out where I am, I plan to do so as quickly as I can." I told her, turning away.

"Come back here!" She snapped, as I started to run off.

I ignored the girl, not wanting anything to do with her. She freaked me out, if I was to be honest. An aura seemed to surround her, saying that there was more to her, much more, then a mere 7 year old girl.

I stopped in a different alley, feeling lost. As I paused, looking for any landmarks I might recognize, I heard a voice whispering. Frowning, I looked around, trying to see where this mystery voice was coming from. The whispering stopped, and I got a sensation that someone, somewhere, was amused. When I took a step forwards, the whispering resumed. I shook my head, trying to ignore it. It faded as I ran through the alley.

I got a nasty shock when I tripped over though. As I placed my hands on the ground to push myself back to my feet, I stared at the flesh on them. Green. My skin was green. Once on my feet I examined them more closely. No, not skin. Scales... I have scales. Green scales. For a full minute, I just stared. My nails were longer, looking more like claws. Nervously, I looked over the rest of my body.

The rest of my body, like my hands, was covered in green scales. My feet had changed shape, becoming larger, three toed, with large claws at the end. I also only seemed able to walk on my toes, it being painful to force my heel to touch the ground. Like my feet weren't designed for it. Digitigrade, I believe the term is. And the real kicker? I have a long lizard tail coming out from just above my ass now.

And then there's my sudden new wardrobe. I had been wearing my school uniform, which was a smart pair of trousers, and, because it was the summer, a light blue polo shirt. That was gone. Instead, I was wearing dark blue jeans, with two belts, one actually looping around the top of the jeans, the other sort of sloping, so while one end is at the proper height, the other is partway down my thigh. Instead of the polo shirt, I was wearing a black, v-neck t-shirt and a sleeveless brown leather trench coat, that reached my knees.

My staring at this sudden (and welcomed) change in my clothing was interrupted when the whispers filled the air again. I spun around, looking for the source. Instead, I came face to face with the same girl from earlier. She looked at me, a bemused expression on her face. I didn't even wait for her to start talking before bolting.

Was my new look what hadn't gone as planned? Who was she?

In sprinted out of the alley and stopped, gaping.

Before me, stood a large, and very familiar tower. I shook my head, refusing to believe that this was real. It couldn't be. How could I be standing before the Shinra Tower?

"Will you stop running away now?" The girl asked, suddenly standing at my side.

I looked at her, nodding, numbly.

"Good. I'm sure you've noticed your current situation." She said, nodding at the tower. "Lizard hybrid, standing in Midgar..."

Again, all I did was nod. She grunted, looking at me.

"This is what you wanted. This is your chance to 'fight the fight', as you so elegantly put it."

"Who are you?" I asked, finding my voice.

"I'm the spirit of your PS2. I know all about you, and your dreams and desires."

"What the hell?"

"Look, I'll explain later." The PS2 snapped, pulling something from thin air. "Because of your stupid decision to run off, you're behind schedule. You need to meet up with Cloud and join AVANCHE. I'll explain more later."

I opened my mouth, but before I could utter a word, she tossed the item that she'd pulled from nowhere at me.

"This is your weapon. Don't lose it. You can buy a new one if you must."

And with that, the girl vanished. Not with a bang, or a puff of smoke, but in the blink of an eye.

I looked at the weapon I was to use: a gunblade. I placed it inside some weird sheath on the inside of my coat. I figured I should go look for Cloud and co. Only problem, I have absolutely no idea where I was, or where to go. You never exactly got to see much of Midgar in the game.

Great, I'm lost, again, happy days. I was being sarcastic if you didn't already know. So this is the chance for an adventure? I'd prefer to stick to computer games.

Doesn't look like I have much of a choice though.

The whispering once again could be heard. Groaning, I thumped the side of my head, certain I was imaging it. All I got in response was a dull throbbing, and the feeling that someone was rolling their eyes at me.


	2. Here's a Lesson on Midgar

Chapter 2: Here's a lesson on Midgar

It's raining bullets. I kid not. Several streets into my search for a group of terrorists, I bumped into a group of Shinra soldiers. For several seconds, all we did was stare at each other, them wondering what the hell I was, me wondering how they were going to react.

In all honesty, I should have seen them going trigger happy from a long way off. One right hook to the squad leader, and a tail whip to the idiot that had pulled out some handcuffs, I turned tail and fled, ducking into an alleyway to avoid the hailstorm of bullets that came my way. Typical really. This was the Shinra, they were hardly known for leaving people to do as they pleased, even if they weren't breaking any laws... well, I don't think I was breaking any laws. For all I knew, giant bipedal lizards were illegal, but somehow, I really doubt it.

For some reason, I couldn't seem to lose them. Any I shot or slashed at with my gunblade were replaced by more of them. Did they have an infinite supply of goons, just standing idly by until some of their comrades were killed? Well, that was the best explanation I could come up with.

But these grunts were lousy aims. I could probably be shot at from point blank range and they'd miss. I wasn't about to test that theory, of course. I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid. I think the Shinra military has had one budget cut too many, if they can't hit me from 12 feet away. True, I was moving, and trying not to get shot at the time, but at that range, with an assault rifle firing on full automatic, I should have been shot. Not that I'm not thankful that I wasn't. I like being alive, thanks for asking.

Leaping up onto a fire escape ladder, and scrambling up, I managed to escape the Shinra moans (named after their constant moaning about not being able to shoot me) for the time being. Sighing, I climbed all the way to the roof, and sat on the edge, looking at the sky. How did I get here? All I knew was that some girl, claiming to be my PS2 dragged me here, because of a comment about living here and fighting the fight. If I'd known that this would have happened, I probably would have kept my big mouth shut. I have nothing against being here... in my geeky dreams. Actually being here, sorry, too much work. I'm not a physically fit guy. Quite the opposite. Picture those stereotypical computer geeks, who sit in their bedrooms using the computer all day, 24/7. Yeah, that's me, only skinny.

Though at the moment, I'm hardly skinny. Broad. Standing up, I looked down at myself, examining every part of me that I could. While I'm sure you're meant to feel different when you've fused with your pet, the fact I'm not out of breath after being chased by the Shinra moans caught my attention. Besides the fact that my arms were green, something about them looked different. Very different. I figured out was it was, when I tensed my arm.

I had muscles.

True they weren't professional boxer or a body builder's size muscles, but I actually had some meat on my bones. So that's what I'd felt. Well, that's one bonus to being here. I have muscles. I could beat someone at an arm wrestle if I tried now. Now that I think about it, no wonder I could actually lift my gunblade. How convenient.

Looking over the edge of the rook, down at the street, I scratched my snout, pondering as to how I was going to be able to find Cloud and the rest of the friendly neighbourhood eco-terrorists. Preferably without being shot at.

Fate decided to tell me the general direction I needed to travel in when one of the Mako reactors exploded, the force from which making me fall of the building. Thank god for balconies. I managed to see which reactor blew up before my drop, it wasn't far, though it was still some distance, it being at the edge of the city while I was more towards the heart of Midgar, still in the shadow of the tower that was the Shinra headquarters. Then again, was there any place in Midgar that **wasn't** within the shadow of that tower?

Hopping from the balcony to the street below, landing with a grace that couldn't have been mine, I started to move through the streets, towards the large smoking husk that was once the Sector 1 Mako reactor. Regrettably, at the first junction, the Shinra troops found me again. I didn't wait to see their response this time around. I just pulled my gunblade free and shot the lead trooper in one fluid motion, almost as if I'd been doing this for a long time. Something to ponder on later.

The troopers weren't exactly overjoyed to see their commanding officer take a bullet to the head. I wouldn't have been either, but I didn't hang around to offer any sympathies. Shouldn't have tried to capture me for whatever purposes. Probably Hojo. Hate to imagine what'd happen if he got his greasy hands on me.

"Stop, in the name of the Shinra!" One of the troopers yelled out at me.

Sod that. If he wants me to stop, he's going to have to do better then that. Maybe paying me the entire Shinra fortune.

A bullet flew over my head, making me stumble, cursing. Mid-stumble, I swung my gunblade around, aiming the end of it in the general area of the moaning soldiers, pumping the trigger as quickly as my finger would allow. I didn't look behind me to check whether any of them were hit though, everyone knows that looking behind you is a foolish thing to do when being chased. Looking behind you slows you down. But judging from the yelling, I think I hit somebody, at least.

Hmm, as well as stronger, and having more stamina, I also seem to be faster then I used to be. Not like it was a difficult feat, me having been so slow back in my human body. I wonder whether these improvements to my body were a result of the fusion, or something the girl that claimed to be my PS2 did. Maybe a combination of the two.

Turning a corner, I slammed into another Shinra trooper, knocking us both to the ground. Thankfully, I landed on top, meaning I didn't have to wait for the soldier's weight to get of of me before I could get up. Before doing so, I slammed a fist into the trooper's face, knocking him out. No sense in letting him join his comrades in their little lizard hunt. Back on my feet, I sprinted down the street like my life depended on it. Knowing the Shinra, I probably did.

Halfway down the street, the whispers came back, and with them, I felt the strangest urge to dive into the alley that was just coming up. Under the mentality of 'what's the worst that could happen?' I dived into the alley, just as heavy machine gun fire started to pour bullets down the street, and would have likely torn me to shreds had I not taken the dive.

Sighing a breath of relief, I eyed the dead end, and shrugged, before climbing the wall that blocked off the alley. Better then waiting here for the moans to arrive. Over the wall, and into a dumpster. My day just keeps getting better with every flying minute. Scrambling out of the dumpster, and away from the stink, I started to move, eager to put as much distance between myself and the moan brigade as I could.

That plan was ruined when a completely different group of Shinra troops stormed down the street, rifles aimed at me. Sighing, I raised my hands, the universal gesture of surrender. I wasn't suicidal, and I doubt they'd hesitate to kill me if I did anything to threaten them.

Doesn't mean I won't try to make life as hard as I could for them.

"Surly we can work something out?" I asked the moans, in mock fear.

"It spoke!" One of the morons yelled in surprise.

"Hail the queen of the obvious." I muttered.

"Shut your trap." The same trooper snapped. "How much of a raise do you think we'll get for delivering this thing to Hojo?"

"At least triple the current wages." A small soldier piped up.

"At least half, you mean." I countered.

"How would dat work?" A different moan pondered, sounding extremely confused.

"Easy. You failed to deliver the goods." I smirked.

"But... but we haven't failed ta deliver... have we?"

"Trust me, you have." I answered him, before grabbing him by the neck and tossing him carelessly through someone's window.

One of the things I liked about this new body was the fact I actually had some strength in my body. As I had mentioned, I was about as strong as a body builder was, but it didn't look it, though you could tell that I was pretty strong. After hearing the smash of the glass, I spun my body around, tail whipping the rest of the soldiers. The moans went flying several feet, doing exactly what I named 'em for, moaning. Before they could stand up, I yanked the gunblade from the sheath and got into a combat stance. My stance was pretty relaxed; I held the gunblade with one hand, which hung loosely by my side. For some reason, it seemed like an automatic reaction, I'd barely put any thought into how I was going to fight. It seemed pretty effective too, because when the soldiers got up, they were pretty unnerved from how relaxed I was.

"Right men." The 'queen of the obvious' started. "It obviously doesn't want to go quietly, so we'll take it by force, dead or alive."

"I was wrong." I claimed, suddenly. "You aren't the queen of the obvious... you're the goddess of the bleedin' obvious."

The man grit his teeth and opened fire at me. I rolled under the storm of bullets and slashed upwards with my gunblade. The poor sod was dead before he could blink. I didn't dwell on it for long, because two of the others started to shoot at me as well. I leapt to the side, and watched, bemused, as one of the pair cut down the other by accident. He stopped shooting the god forsaken machine-gun, to gape at what he had done, when a hole appeared in his forehead, where I shot him. I remember whirling and twisting as I slashed and shot at the Shin-Ra lackeys, making it all seem like some kind of dance. A couple of times, I even used my tail to add to the attack. Afterwards, I stood over the dead bodies, a little puzzled. What puzzled me was that I hadn't even thought to attack, just as I hadn't thought to enter that battle stance. I figured I'd think about it later, or maybe even ask my PS2 about it, when I got the chance. As a victory move, I flipped my blade and caught it before swiftly sheathing it.

I looked around and remembered my current situation. The mako reactor had blown up, and not too far away, but thanks to that fight, I may have missed AVALANCHE. I took off down the street, looking for a train station. AVALANCHE got to sector 7 by train, so I needed to be on that train.

Lady Luck frowned upon me. After I took a single step, the original moan patrol showed up, guns blazing. Cursing, I fired several rounds at them, examining my surroundings for a way to slow them down, help me to get away.

My eyes strayed to a cable stretching across the street, cackling with electricity after brief intervals. Taking another shot at the troopers, I switched my aim to the power cable and shot at the point where it connected with a large pole that kept it suspended in the air. The seventh bullet tore through the cable, forcing it to become a victim of gravity, which wasted no time in throwing it to the ground in front of the moans. The troopers moved backwards, their aim drifting from me to the cackling cable that now blocked their path.

I took the opportunity to run the opposite direction, pausing only briefly to introduce a late comer from the now dead group to me palm.

I was in luck. As I left the street, I entered a very familiar area. It was the site where Cloud was ambushed and was forced to leap onto the train. And he had only just finished off with the first wave of moans. I watched as right after they died, another pair of troops arrived, and forced him to retreat. He ran to where I was standing, planning on fleeing down the street I had just come from.

"You don't want to go down there." I said, grabbing his arm.

"Why not?" He demanded.

"Couple of squads of them, with more probably on the way." I grimly replied.

The swordsman frowned, glancing over my shoulder to see my handiwork, before nodding.

"Fine." He responded, running the opposite direction.

I followed him. We encountered another squad of goons, who were easily disposed of between the two of us, before another squad came to replace them. Eventually we were cornered, on the side of the bridge, over looking the train tracks. The trains whistle was heard by all.

"That's as far as you go." one of the soldiers said smugly. Each of the soldiers had their guns raised, ready to fire if either Cloud or me made any other attempts to escape.

"I don't have time to messing around with you guys." Cloud snapped at the goons.

"Enough babbling, grab them." The commanding officer ordered.

I wasn't about to hang around for them, and neither was Cloud. We leapt up onto the wall and jumped off. To anyone else, it looked like we had committed suicide, but to us, it had been anything but. We had heard the train coming (or rather Cloud did, I only knew because I've seen the clip loads of times), and we had jumped safely on top of it. Once the train entered the tunnel, away from the Shin-Ra soldiers, Cloud turned to me.

"Thanks for the help." He said; voice raised just enough so that he could be heard above the noise the train was making.

"No problem." I answered. "Hey, do you know about AVALANCHE?"

"I know them. Why?" He asked, scowling.

"I want to join them. Shinra has screwed up enough peoples lives; I want to help them stop Shinra."

"You'll need to speak to Barret. He's the leader. I'll show you to him in a minute." Cloud responded, after thinking for a while.

I blinked in surprise. I had expected him to refuse, but he had said he'd show me to Barret? I couldn't help but think that this was a little out of character for him at this point in the game. Then it hit me; he was a mercenary, and by introducing someone who wanted to join, full time, he was hoping to get a little extra in the payment, greedy bastard. Grinning, I observed him, as he ran to the end of the train and crouched down. I walked casually up to him.

"Don't follow me straight in." Cloud warned. "They are extremely cautious, and if they see a non-human just waltz in after me, they'll assume the worst, for both of us. It doesn't help that I'm ex-SOLDIER myself. Wait for me to give all the cautions to them."

"Be my guest." I shrugged. As long as I was accepted, I was happy.

I watched him grab onto a rail and lower himself to the doors. He knocked on them several times, before opening them and flipping in.

"Show off." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

I sat down, waiting. I almost burst out laughing when I heard Barret start yelling at Cloud over the mercenary's ego. It went silent for a couple of minutes until Cloud leant out of the door.

"You can come in now." He said.

Nodding to myself, I leapt from the roof of the train, grabbing the railing with my tail, swinging myself through the large doors. 3 people inside jumped at my appearance, the pair who didn't being Cloud and the leader of AVALANCHE himself: Barret. Barret raised an eyebrow, and was about to say something, when I interrupted him, grabbing his hand and pumping it up and down. Hey, if there is one thing I know about being allowed into groups, the leader's ego is the key. Inflate it enough, you're in.

"Wow... The mastermind behind AVALANCHE himself. This is an honour. And... oh my god, the rumour is true, you **do** have a gun-arm. This is the greatest day of my life. I'm a big fan of you guys." I say so fast, even I had difficulty understanding myself.

I heard Cloud snort in the background. Barret was looking at me, mouth agape as he tried to register just what I had said. Eventually, he smirked at me and turned to Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, in the background.

"I like this guy already." He grunted.

See what I mean about inflating the ego? Anyway, he seemed to be analysing me, with those beady eyes of his, probably pondering whether to actually let me join or not.

"You're in." He grinned. "What's your name kid?"

And for the umpteenth time today, I am surprised at these auto reactions I seem to be using, because, instead of saying my name, I called myself:

"Spike."

"Spike, eh? Welcome aboard." He replied. "Damn. Now I can't call Cloud 'Spike' in honour of his hair." He joked.

Everyone but Cloud chuckled softly for a moment.

Barret turned quickly and headed towards the door leading into the next train car. "Wake up! We're movin' out! Follow me."

And just like that, Barret pushed open the door of the car and headed out, leaving the rest of us in the baggage car. Wedge pushed himself up off the crate he had been sitting on, and walked to Cloud.

"Hey, Cloud, you were great back there," he commented, before he turned looked at me. "Great to have you aboard, Spike." He claimed, before he walked through the door after Barret. Once he was gone Biggs walked up to me, after previously saying something to the spiky headed swordsman.

"It's great to have a new permanent member, we've been hurting for help for ages now." He said, and he also walked through the door.

I turned at the sound of the cargo doors shutting and smirked at Cloud while Jessie mothered him, scrubbing his face clean.

"There you go." She concluded. She then walked past Cloud, heading for the door. "Say, thanks for helping me back there at the reactor."

Before she left, she nodded politely at me, before exiting. Cloud stood still for a couple of seconds before following. I smiled in victory at managing to join AVALANCHE. I was disturbed by the sound of someone clapping. I pivoted my body around and saw just the person I wanted to see: my PS2. I pointed at her, scowling.

"You. Me. Answers. Now!"


	3. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 3: F.A.Q: Frequently Asked Questions

My PS2 shrugged, shifting around so she could get comfortable. Now that it wasn't some dark ally, I could see her clearly. She had raven black hair, which had bleached roots, and she allowed it fall to her shoulders. She wore a dark red T-shirt, and a pair of Tomb Raider length shorts, she also wore a pair of sandals. She had a tanned look, and her eyes were ocean blue. She also looked far too innocent to actually be innocent. Do you know what I mean? Usually, when someone looks this innocent, they are in no way innocent.

"How do I get home?" I asked, getting to the most important question.

"Beat the living crap out of Sephiroth." She replied, almost casually.

"Erg." I pulled a face, which isn't hard when your face has turned into a reptile snout. "A little young for language like that?"

"Sod off." She grunted.

"So, basically, you want me to walk up to a very powerful bastard, and beat him up... Why do I suddenly feel a need to get some life insurance?" I said, mostly to myself.

"Big baby." She sniggered at me.

"Hey... I'm just nervous, because I can't defend myself against the likes of common school thugs, and here you are, telling me that in order to go home, I need to beat up Sephiroth!"

"To be more exact, One-Winged Angel."

"You're trying to kill me. You know that?" I claimed, eyes wide, imagining the results that **that** would bring.

"No, you'll be with AVALANCHE. They won't boot you out; I've tinkered around with the game. You're now a permanent member of AVALANCHE."

"So it's your fault Cloud was acting kinda off?"

"Yes."

"Right... PS2... why am I like _this_?" I asked, standing arms outstretched, referring to my new reptilian look.

"Suits you." She said, sarcastically, as she walked up to me. "Like the man of my dreams." She let out a false dreamy sigh, which women always seemed to use when they spoke about cute actors.

I stared at her for a couple of seconds, before I grabbed about a handful of the front of her T-shirt and lifted her off the floor. There was a brief look of shock in her eyes, but they quickly narrowed and gave me a look of fury. Tough sucks, I'm in control right now, not you, so deal with it. Too bad I didn't say that out loud.

"I'm being serious. Now give me an answer. Why have I turned into a reptile humanoid?" I hissed at her. Yes, I actually hissed, and no, it wasn't because of my new body, as much as I hate to admit it. I just do, when I'm pissed off enough.

My PS2 simply shrugged, before she slipped out of her T-shirt, landing softly on the floor. She looked at me coldly for a second or so. Thank god she was wearing a light blue vest under her T-shirt.

"You are in that body because when I transported you here, you were holding that **water dragon** of yours. You weren't supposed to go through with **anyone** or **anything** else, so you merged with Spike. You are Jethro. And at the same time, you are Spike. You are now sharing the same body. Although, watching that fight with the ShinRa troops, it seems it may well be to your advantage, since it wasn't you fighting, it was Spike. Seems he'd rather you both are called by his name though, which is why you said your name is Spike. Happy now?" She explained, before snatching her top from me and putting it on, mumbling under her breath.

"So... I'm me and Spike, rolled into one? My brains, and his muscles? These are his muscles right? Since they sure as hell ain't mine."

"They're his. He's a pretty strong lizard." She said, and my chest inflated, as I was proud of the little reptile, or was this him, being proud of himself? My had started to hurt, thinking about this.

"Wait, then the whispers I've been constantly hearing since I arrived here are...?"

The girl looked interested at what I had just said, examining me.

"Whispers? It's possible. Fusions like yours have never happened before... shouldn't even be possible, but you just went and contradicted **that** theory. Seeing as there were two minds involved, I'd assume that you can hear Spike's thoughts, and he can hear yours."

As if on cue, the whispers started to sound out. I put a hand to my temple, concentrating on the whispers, trying to distinguish the words.

_'The girl is correct.'_

I gave a short gasp, hearing the voice that, while I understood, didn't sound like it was in English. The girl raised an eyebrow, looking at me.

"I take it you just heard it." She asked.

I nodded, dumbly.

"It'll probably get easier to understand his thoughts as time goes by and you both start thinking on the same wavelength." She pondered, placing her chin in one hand. "Course that also means that you can hide thoughts from each other. I'm sure that both of you being around the teenage years that you'll have thoughts you'd rather keep to yourself."

_'Or I can use it to put embarrassing thoughts in your mind at inconvenient moments...'_

I blinked, not having had to concentrate to decipher those foreign thoughts. I bit back a groan as a mental image flashed across my mind that wasn't something I'd imagined. Brushing the mental image aside, I turned my concentration to the manifestation of my PS2.

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked, frowning.

"Not that I know of." She replied. "You are the first time something like this has happened, so most of what I've said is guess work. I could be completely wrong. You'll have to figure out the details yourself."

How helpful. Ok, the summery of what I just learnt. My fusion was the first time something like this had ever happened. My lizard can control reflex responses if he so desires, if the making me dub myself Spike was anything to go by. We can communicate with each other. The PS2 is useless in helping sort this out.

Sighing, I decided to change the subject, avoiding the headache I felt coming. Feeling the weight of my gunblade inside my coat, I spoke up the first thought that came to mind.

"Ok. My future weapons. There are only a small number of gunblades. I'll need more then the 5 or so that exist."

"No worries. You've got a completely unique set of gunblades to Squall. Look closely at your one."

I unsheathed my weapon and looked at it. It wasn't any type I'd seen before. While the blade looked Hyperion style, the handle looked like a lightsaber handle, only with a regular trigger rather than a button to energize a laser.

"Cool." I murmured. How did I miss that earlier?

"That's your basic weapon. (Nah, you don't say) It's called Venom. You'll get a new blade at most new shops. However, except for the ultimate weapon, they're mostly just for vanity. You may find that one has better balance or whatever, but they're all pretty much the same, besides appearance."

"Venom? Nice name."

"Hand picked it myself. Wait 'till you see your ultimate weapon." The girl said, proudly. "Now, give me a name, I am refusing to go around, being called PS2 all the time."

"Ok, how's about... Jenova? Because you're an evil PS2."

"How about not? That is... unless you **don't** wanna go home."

"Fine... Shiva."

"Because I'm as beautiful as fresh fallen snow?"

"Nope. Try because you always freeze on me." I smirked.

Just after I had said that, a snowball hit me in the face. Wait... a snowball? I scooped the substance from my face and looked at it. White and cold. Defiantly snow. I looked at my PS2. She was holding two more snowballs. She prepared to throw the next one at me.

"Take a joke." I complained, backing away slowly.

"Sorry, I seem to have lost my sense of humour." She responded, dryly.

"Fine. How about... Jade?"

"It's ok, I suppose. Could have been better, but could have been worse."

"That's right, no-one like a pessimist."

Again, a snowball hit me in the face.

"Where the hell did you get those bloody snowballs? The nearest snow is on the northern continent. We're in a train in Midgar."

"I can create snow as I please. If I wanted, I could make this train go flying, with everyone singing religious songs, until the train crashes into ShinRa tower."

"... Please don't." I squeaked. "I'm too young to die."

"Shut up. Any more questions?"

"How old are you?"

"I've the mentality of a 60 year old."

"The personality of one too."

The last snowball hit me in the mouth.

"Shove off." She said, pushing me out of the baggage car.

I opened the door the passenger car, and noticed Cloud, standing next to Barret, looking out the window, having just finished talking to Barret about people not being able to do jack shit. I sat down opposite Barret and gazed out of the window. Barret looked at me, with those beady, beady little eyes of his. I ignored him and turned to the door as a buffet cart came in. I sat up and looked at the contents, and saw: A king-size twix, a bottle of coke and a packet of McCoys Salt and Vinegar crisps. I fished around in my coat pocket and found a 5-gil note. Strange, the only difference it had from Earth money was that the picture was of Shiva instead of the Queen, or president. After I paid a very nervous woman for the merchandise, I dug in, eating like I've never eaten before. Hey, I missed my dinner, what do you expect? Me to stand idly by and save it? Nope. When I'm hungry, I eat. Plain and simple. I couldn't help but wonder if this food was a result of Jade's (I wish I'd thought of a better name) tinkering around with the system, because I never pictured these brand names in FF7. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

I wonder, just what sort of an impact will I have. Will I be able to save Biggs, Wedge and Jessie? Even if I could, I probably won't, nothing personal to their fans, but all Wedge did was act as a lookout, while Biggs and Jessie opened doors and also acted as lookouts. No need for them, they'd just get in the way when AVALANCHE starts hunting Sephiroth. Yeah, like we need a trio of lookouts whilst fighting One-Winged Angel. I took this moment to look at the trio. Biggs was sleeping as he leant against a pole. He looked pretty muscular, but it was easy to tell that his weapon was the assault rifle that was slung on his back. Wedge was carrying a sniper rifle, as was made clear by the large scope on his rifle. Jessie obviously used the whip that hung from her hip. All three members of the trio had various different grenades on them. This was news to me, since you never actually see them using their weapons in the game. I never saw why it couldn't do what FF9 did and allow you to use them temporarily, like all the guys in Zidane's gang. Not like I care, but still, it would have been good if you could. I noticed the train slowing down, so I stood up and waited near the door, eager to get off before I suffered from motion sickness. Normally, I can cope if it's a train I'm riding, but this was hardly the smoothest train ride I've been on. As if to prove my point, the train starts to shake violently. Oh god, I think I'm gonna hurl. Cloud's not looking too good himself, but at least he's managed to hide it pretty well.

The train finally rumbled to a stop, and not a minute too late. I push my way out of the train, holding my stomach. I could just tell that Cloud was sniggering behind my back. Barret wasn't paying attention, since he immediately started barking orders at us.

"Yo! Get over here, all'ya!"

The 3 stooges and me ran up to him. He folded his arms and gave us a look, me in particular.

"This mission was a success, but don't get lazy now." He commanded us. "The hard part's still to come. Don't y'all be scared of that explosion. 'Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that! Spike, come with me. The rest of you meet back at the hideout. Move out!"

I jogged up to Barret. He gave me a quick glance before he grunted at me.

"C'mon, you don't know where the hideout is. We're gonna introduce you to Tifa an' Marlene."

Of course, I knew where AVALANCHE's hideout was, any self-respecting fan of Final Fantasy 7 would. Of course, I can't tell Barret that. He leads me to Tifa's 7th Heaven, and shoved me through the saloon doors, before walking in himself. The inside looked like a typical bar: the bar, the barmaid, the mugs of booze, and the all important: pinball machine. Ok, so it's only important for this particular bar, but still...

"Alright, parties over!" Barret and Tifa simultaneously yelled at the customers.

Obviously, they hadn't agreed and started yelling at the pair. Barret lifted his gun-arm in the air and fired the assault rifle in the air. Everyone started fleeing the bar as one. After they had left, they started yelling from outside, obviously upset, causing a grumbling Barret to run out and start threatening the forming riot. I'm starting to sound boring here, aren't I? Tough. Tifa looked at me, puzzlement evident on her face, hell, who wouldn't. Here I am, a humanoid lizard, who just so happened to be a 15 year old teen. The 3 stooges came walking in and Tifa started to serve them a couple of pints of various alcohol products.

"Hey, rookie. You want a pint?" Biggs suddenly asked me, waving a mug of cider in the air.

"I'm underage. The only time I drink is special occasions." I informed him.

"Wait... just how old are you?" He questioned, frowning.

"15. And don't start thinking differently because." I threatened. Don't you hate it when people suddenly turn their opinions of you around because of your age? Just to empathise my point, I made my gunblade painfully obvious to him.

"Wouldn't think of it." He gulped.

"Good." I sniggered.

A little girl stepped out from behind the bar, and gave me a curious look. Marlene. She looked pretty cute. I crouched down in front of her.

"Hello." I greeted, softly.

She seemed to cringe at my voice. Or was it at Cloud, who had just walked in?


	4. Training at the Train Grave

Chapter 4: Training by the Train Grave

I shot an annoyed glance at Cloud. Hey, can't you see I'm trying to make sure that a little girl doesn't scream down the house? Ah sod it. I really need to learn to stop thinking these things in my head as opposed to saying them; the satisfaction of saying that to Cloud's face would have been great. As it was, all I did was roll my eyes and straighten myself. Tifa smiled warmly at Cloud before glancing at me again.

"Hi. I'm Spike, nice to meet you." I said, holding out my hand.

Tifa hesitated for a second before gripping my hand.

"Tifa." She introduced herself. "Why did Biggs call you a rookie?"

"I'm joining AVALANCHE. Probably thinks that because I just joined, I have no experience in fighting Shinra. A friend told me about your resistance. Thought I'd join. It was luck I found you though, despite all efforts, she couldn't tell me where to find you."

"Who is this friend of yours?" She asked as I crouched down to try and make friends with Marlene again.

'_Just say I'm your informant.'_ Jade's voice commanded me.

"I wouldn't really call her a friend, more an informant. She just gives me info on the Shinra. I don't question her on the hows or why's, I just know that she is reliable, and I trust her."

_'That trust is well spent. About the next question; your right coat pocket.'_

"How does she contact you?" Cloud butted in.

I shot Cloud a look before digging inside my coat pocket and pulled out a PHS. The PHS is effectively a top of the line Mobile Phone from back home, the same type as my dad's. Thank you Jade, I promise not to use your name in vane. Cloud grunted at me. I stepped aside and finished off the last of my coke. Now that I was out of the way, Tifa and Cloud started talking.

"Welcome, Cloud. Looks like everything went well. Did you fight with Barret?"

"Yeah."

"I should have known. He's always pushing people around, and you've always been in fights ever since you were little. I was worried."

There was a pause as they just looked at each other, before Cloud lifted up a flower. Oh, joyous of joys, Cloud bought a flower. Ack, romance makes me sick. Actually, I hate anything sappy. It just makes me sick. No, I am **not** trying to be macho; I just hate sappiness. I block out the rest of the conversation, making an offensive gesture with my tail. I have a new method of swearing, even if people can't understand; like my swearing in Druatch. Yes, I do know some words in Dragon, so don't think I'm making it up as I go along. Making it up as I go would result in Corporal Adrian Shepard and several Vortigaunts walking in and joining AVALANCHE, and we all go around fighting the Combine, who have teamed up with Shinra. See the difference between me making it up and me simply telling the story as it happened? Bah. I snapped out of my reverie. Barret walked in. I noticed that Cloud had tried to walk out but was now sitting on the edge of the nearest table. Heh, so much for romance.

"Papa, welcome home!"

No, that was not me. How could you even consider thinking that? That would be Marlene, rushing to her father. Barret hoisted his adopted daughter onto his right shoulder and looked around the room.

"Everything go alright Barret?" Tifa asked.

"Great." Was the gruff voiced reply. "Even got a new recruit. Get in here, fools! We're starting the meetin'!"

He then strode over to the pinball machine and hit the button. The machine and the floor on which it stood slid downwards, with Barret. The rest of AVALANCHE leapt down the hole. I followed them down the hole that the absence of the pinball machine had made. The room I landed in looked like a cross between a storeroom and a briefing room. Barret had launched himself at a punching bag in a corner of the room, pounding it furiously. Biggs and Marlene were simply watching, Jessie had sat herself at a computer, and Wedge was simply sitting at the table, staring into space. I had barely moved from the space that the pinball machine took up when it rose up. I silently sat myself on the crate closest to the TV, watching for the news. After five minutes, the pinball machine descended upon us, carrying Cloud. Almost immediately, everyone turned to face him.

"Yo, Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya." Boomed out Barret, who now that I was looking at properly, seemed more like Mr. T than ever. "Was there anyone from SOLDIER fighting us today?"

"Doubt it." I muttered.

Jessie shot me a look but I shrugged it off. Cloud looked deep in thought for a second before looking up, arms crossed.

"None. I'm positive."

Barret gave the punching bag an extra punch before responding:

"You sound pretty sure." '_Sucka'_ I mentally added.

"If there was anyone from SOLDIER, you wouldn't be standing here now." Was Cloud's monotone reply.

Barret glared at Cloud.

"Don't you go thinkin' you so bad, jes cuz you was in SOLDIER." Barret said, evenly.

He then tried to run at Cloud, probably to beat the living crap out of him, but Biggs grabbed his Mr T leader, and held him back, visibly straining to do so. Cloud was silent, looking as if he could care less that he had just pissed of a huge brawly man who happened to have a gun attached to him. Barret then proceeded to fling his lackey across the room.

"Yeah, you're strong. Probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALNCHE now! Don't get no ideas 'bout hanging on to Shinra."

That got Cloud to turn around, swinging his arm to the side as he went. I could tell that he was pissed off with the remark about staying with Shinra.

"Staying with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it… that's all."

Cloud then walked up to Barret until he was right in the giants face.

"I'm going upstairs. I want to talk about my money."

Barret started to shake with barely suppressed fury. I heard him mutter something involving the word money. Ah, money, the root of all evil. Cloud started to walk away when Tifa, who I hadn't even seen coming in ran up to him.

"Wait, Cloud!" She pleaded.

Cloud looked like he was about consider it when Barret opened the large gob he has.

"Tifa! Let him go! Looks like he still misses the Shinra!"

Cloud's face turned red with anger and he walked with slow deliberation.

"Shut up! I don't care about either Shinra or SOLDIER!" He snapped.

He stopped at the pinball elevator and turned to face Barret.

"But don't get me wrong! I don't care about AVALANCHE or the Planet for that matter!"

He then finally stepped onto the elevator and rode it upwards. Barret started to hit the punch bag with a passion, releasing his rage on the poor defenceless inanimate object. The pinball machine slid back down and Tifa leapt onto it, hitting the button to make it go back up, with her on it. Then for some reason, the blasted thing came back down, allowing everyone in this claustrophobic basement to hear what each of the two upstairs were saying. I got as far as hearing Tifa pleading Cloud to join AVALNCHE, before telling everyone that if they wanted me, I'd be at the train graveyard. I then leapt out of the crabby cellar next to a bemused Cloud. I nodded politely at him and Tifa as I left the bar and walked past the train station, ignoring the odd looks from the ignorant citizens. All to soon I found myself in the grave of the busted trains. I pulled the PHS out of my pocket. May as well see just who is on the address book, if anybody. The first contact on it had a picture of Jade, wearing blue tinted sunglasses. Under, it had her name and a phone number. Useful, if I ever have any questions. The next contact was a regular looking human, with short black hair, and Mako eyes. So I know someone within SOLDIER? Or maybe he's an Ex-SOLDIER, like Cloud… I'll have to check with Jade, but… remember how earlier I was saying that if I were making this up Adrian Shepard would join us? Seems this guys name is just that… And the next contact just so happens to be a Vortigaunt… named Xenor…

"The hell…" I murmured to myself.

"They raised you." A voice said, behind me.

I jumped around, hand resting on the hilt of my gunblade, but relaxed when I saw it was only Jade.

"Say wha…?"

"Adrian and Xenor. They raised you." Jade said slowly, as if talking to a child. Bitch.

"You're making this a crossover with Half-Life?" I asked, eyebrow ridge raised.

"Nope, think of them as just a cameo. I had to give you **some **sort of background here, so I grabbed a couple of characters from another of your favorite games. Adrian was your favorite hero from Half-Life and Xenor is one of the friendly Vortigaunts from Half-Life 2. They have nothing to do with the story, other than the fact they are your guardians. They found you, abandoned, alone…"

"No dramatics. Just get on with it." I interrupted.

"Fine. They found you when you were very young, and raised you. You only recently left to go to Midgar. It was Ex-Corporal Shepard who gave you that gunblade, as a means of self-defence. And you met me when you got to Midgar. Happy?"

"Yeah…" I replied slowly.

Interesting. I've got a cameo appearance as my family. One happens to be an Ex-SOLDIER, the other happens to be an alien with one big, red eye, and a kick-ass, natural, ability to shoot electricity. I wonder why I left the safety of them… because I'm a rebellious teen, duh. Jade suddenly smirked at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You need to learn how to fight properly."

"I did just fine against those moans."

"That was luck."

"You wanna test that theory?"

"Gladly." Was her unexpected response, as she slowly, pulled out a couple of knives. She held them in the same style as Zidane.

I pulled out my gunblade and allowed Spike to take control, while still keeping a portion of my mind to myself. Jade leapt at me, swinging one knife at my chest. I ducked the slash and stabbed my weapon at her stomach, but she flipped over the gun-sword hybrid and roundhouse kicked me in the face. I stumbled backwards, before using my tail to stop me from falling flat on my ass. The horror came at me again, slashing those knives in an 'X' formation. I leapt backwards, landing heavily. Looking up, she was at me again. I did a backwards roll, just before she stabbed her knives into the ground I had just vacated. I raised my blade, ready to defend myself from another attack when a large flame burst out of the ground in front of me, injuring me and forcing me to stumble backwards yet again.

"You obviously can't touch me the way you're going. Try magic." Jade advised.

One look at my weapon revealed a green crystal attached to my gunblade. Green, magic.

"Try to sense what type it is, then picture its results." She tutored me.

Not risking closing my eyes, I thought at the Materia, trying to sense its type. Wait… Ice! I pictured the ice freezing the annoying PS2, making her freeze completely. The air around Jade suddenly turned misty and froze. She shivered freely, until the mist disappeared. I smirked at her.

"Don't get cocky. I'm not even trying. I have one more thing to teach you, before you can try and beat me." She said. "Try a limit break."

Just as she said this, she ran up to me and slashed me several times.

"Your first limit is real easy. Just picture yourself doing something, and bobs yer uncle."

That was easy enough. I wanted nothing more right now than to stuff this blade in her stomach and pull the trigger so fast the gunshots were like a machine gun. I then felt really powerful and my body moved of its own accord, different from when Spike controlled it fully, and did just what I had imagined. Jade coughed, stepping backwards.

"Enough. Crap, that was overkill." She groaned.

"Heh, sorry." I apologized, actually meaning it.

"No problem, this time." She grunted, handing me a hip flask. "Drink it, it's a potion."

I drank the potion, feeling the bruises start to heal.

"Just one warning." Jade said, out of the blue. I looked at her. "Never allow Spike full control when your fighting by yourself, because it is the same as being in a fury, unable to use limits, magic or items, but you get extra powerful. He will only take full control when you are badly injured when you have teammates with you, and he will give you partial control again when you are healed. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." I saluted her, my voice just like a stereotypical soldiers.

"Don't you forget it. I'll be going now. Now, like a true informant, I'll call you need I want to tell you something, unless I feel bored." She said, before walking off.

I stared at where she had disappeared off to when Barret walked up to me.

"Spike. We're all turnin' in for the night. You had best come back to the hideout." I nodded, following after him.


	5. Mission Numero Une Deux if you're not me

Chapter 5: Mission numero une (Duex if you're not me)

I opened a red eye. I had learnt about my eye colour from a curious Marlene, when she'd asked me why my eyes were red. I had to say it was my natural eye colour. I looked around the room. I was the same briefing room that I had fallen asleep in, stretched across the table. I groggily arose, yawning. I hate insomnia, all it ever does is force me to spend nearly all of the night doing nothing but think. The only good thing I discovered from this was that I could communicate with the lizard within (Spike, if you didn't realize). Cloud was already awake and gone. The pinball machine was down though, so I could go up, when I desired. Stretching, I grabbed my coat and t-shirt from where I dumped them to be used as a pillow. Slipping on the t-shirt, I hit the button on the pinball machine, not caring whether or not the damned thing broke. Grumpy, aren't I, well I'll stay like this until I get a hell load of sugar in my system. I snarled at Cloud, Barret and Tifa when they gave me questioning looks, and staggered up to the bar.

"Anything with sugar." I said to Marlene, who was behind the bar, hand ready to grab a bottle from the shelves.

The young girl nodded and grabbed a suspicious looking bottle from the shelf. Ignoring my inner screams to throw down the substance, most likely to be alcohol, I opened the bottle and gulped down half of its contents in one go. Yum, lemonade.

"My private stock." Marlene informed me, as I finished the other half.

I grunted my thanks, handing her a 5 gil note. I turned around, tossing the bottle into a bin in the corner. Cloud was just finishing his explanation about Materia. Feeling more awake, I slipped my coat on.

"What's happening today?" I asked the leader of this little group of eco-terrorists.

"'Nother reactor bombing." Barret said.

"Cool." I muttered, stretching my still aching muscles. "Which one?"

"Number 5." Tifa told me, pulling on a pair of leather gloves.

I shrugged at the choice of reactor, knowing that if I changed it, Cloud wouldn't meet Aeris again, screwing up the story. Heck, there wouldn't even be a roof and flowerbed to break his fall, so no worries here, I ain't going to change anything. I checked that I still had Venom before looking at them again.

"When do we leave?"

"15 minutes." Cloud murmured.

"You're still with us?" I asked, mock surprised. "For a large sum of cash, no doubt. But if by some miracle you survived the world's death, what would you spend all that money on?"

Cloud leered at me, obviously annoyed at my attempt to make him actually want to save the planet. Can't blame a guy for trying, can you? Cloud grunted and left the bar, looking annoyed. I shrugged, before following him out. Out of the building, I inhaled deeply… and started to have a coughing fit. Jeez, the air is much worse down here than it is topside. Damnable city. I walked to the train station; once again ignoring all looks sent my way. Honestly, is it really that rare to see a bipedal lizard? Probably is. I wonder if Spike's used to this sort of thing. Speak of the devil; his half of our mind just woke up. I smirked softly to myself. From the jumbled thoughts I was getting, he's as bad as me when he first awakes.

"Morning." I said to myself, pleased to hear Spike mentally greeting me in return. "Nice to hear you too."

I stepped into dingy train, Cloud just behind me. Since I was in an annoying mood, I swung my tail in his direction, almost knocking him off his feet.

"Watch it!" He snarled at me.

I gave him an innocent look. "Me? What did I do? I can't help having to move the extra appendage every so often."

"Last I checked; lizards don't wag their tails, that's dogs." The spiky headed swordsman snapped.

"Then check again." I replied, in an even voice.

Cloud gave me a look, before stepping around me and walking rapidly away from me. Barret sniggered to himself, also stepping around me and into the first passenger carriage. I slumped down on the first empty seat I saw, and watched as Barret started to order AVALANCHE out of the carriage. Some idiot to the side started mumbling something. Now, if memory serves, that guy was the Shinra executive, which means that Barret is about to have a go at him. I refused to acknowledge the urge to shut my eyes, since this was going to be a short trip, made even shorter from things that we have no control over, which always seems to happen in this life. I turned to the bum, who was sitting opposite me, well; lying would be closer to the truth. The tramp was giving me a curious look but didn't seem scared, unlike everyone else; when he looked it was simply curiosity.

"People must give you your space a lot, huh kid?"

Strange, it's always the uneducated or the ones people look down upon that seem to see things for what they are. Me, I'm just a 15 year old, in an inhuman body; not a monster, just a teen. He seemed to realize that. I shot him a grin. A loud thump distracted us however, as Barret decided to intimidate the ShinRa exec, yelling his head of. I blanked out the noise and shut my eyes, deciding it to be more worthwhile trying to catch up on any sleep I could, woe betide of any who foolishly wakes me.

Of course, this is me we're talking about; do you honestly believe it'll be as easy as **that**? No. As it was, the alarm decided to waltz in on my sleep, forcing me awake. Me? I reacted as any insomniac who finally got some sleep would; I grabbed my gunblade and shot it in the air several times, somehow stopping the wailing sound. Barret, Tifa and Cloud all shot me looks.

"What?" I demanded.

They didn't get a chance to answer, since Jessie ran in, looking like she had watched a video and then got a phone call saying she had seven days to live.

"We're in trouble, I'll explain later. Hurry! Get to the next car!" She yelled desperately at us, before promptly buggering off.

"FUCK!" Barret swore. "Someone blew it…"

'**Unidentified passengers in car 1, preparing for lock down.' **A robotic voice informed the whole train.

"Let's go! Keep it up!" Barret encouraged us.

Not needing any further encouragement, I got up and started running for the door to the next carriage. I got in just behind Cloud, who was frowning at something.

"Made it." I said, as the door locked behind me.

Barret nodded, seeming pleased that none of us had been in there as it disengaged from the rest of the train.

'**Car 1: locked down. Upgrading to level 2 warning.' **The same boring voice informed us.

The rest of AVALANCHE was right at the other end of the car.

"Hurry!" Biggs yelled at us, as he exited the car.

"They're going to lock the car, Sir!" Wedge informed us, following his skinnier friend.

"Just run, changing to plan 2!" Jessie added her two cents, buggering off yet again.

'**Unidentified passengers located in car 2. Preparing lock-down.'**

That voice started to grate at my nerves. I shot a venomous look at the ceiling, as if it would stop it from talking. Deciding that it wasn't worth it, I followed my three partners to the next car, jumping over a couple of prats who decided to try and stop me. Cloud, Tifa and Barret had already gotten through the door, which started to close. I did a baseball slide, not too keen on the idea of being left behind, and slid through before it could fully shut. I stood up and started to wipe away the dust.

'**Car 2 locked down. Upgrading to level 3 warning.'**

"Awright! We clear!" Barret grunted triumphantly.

Jessie looked up at us. "Not yet. They're starting another check. If we're caught, we're done for! But don't worry…"

"If we move up the train fast enough we can bypass it, right?" I finished for her.

"Well, yes. How did you…"

I shot her a grin. "It's what we've been doing so far, I don't see any reason to stop."

She nodded, before sprinting to the next car, leaving us behind, again. She is really starting to annoy me; can't she wait for us, at least once? Nope. I ran along, trying to get away from the carriage before the lockdown starts. Unfortunately, I didn't, but I'm not going to bore you with the message, which was exactly the same as before. After getting a message warning us that security was about to be maximised, we gave ourselves time to relax. Jessie was standing near an open door, leading to the outside of the train.

"All right! We made it! Yo! This way! Let's go! We're gonna dive outta here!" Barret exclaimed.

I looked out of the door, making a mental note of how fast we were obviously moving.

"Hell no. I ain't no suicidal fool." I snapped at him.

Tifa looked like I'd taken the words right out of her mouth. The Mr. T wannabe looked at me, his beady eyes narrowed at me.

"Ya'll live." He said, surprisingly calm.

"Sure… Do I look Mako enhanced? Do I look like I made of muscle? Do I look like I'm as agile as a cat? I'm a bloody lizard!"

In my ranting, I had walked near the open door, waving my arms like a lunatic. Barret walked up to me. I glared at him, but blinked in confusion when he smirked. He slowly moved his hand and tapped me on the chest, hard. I lost my balance and fell backwards, out of the large open space, and out of the train. Bastard. I rolled along the ground beside the track, until I hit a wall. A loud crack sounded throughout the tunnel, as my right arm broke. At least it stopped my graceless roll. I stood up, and examined my arm. A clean snap. I was only holding in the yells of pain and anguish because Spike had decided to take control of my mouth, leaving to only curse in my head. I could see the reasoning of making me silent, who knows what may lurk here in these tunnels, and Shin-Ra troops were no doubt going to be searching for the escaped passengers, no point in making their job easier. I never had a broken arm before, a broken nose, but never a broken arm, not even fractured. Still, I knew enough to have the initiative to snap my arm back in place, so it wouldn't try healing with it sticking out at an angle. Silently thanking Spike, I grabbed my forearm and closed my eyes, preparing for the inevitable pain. I snapped it back, and screamed mentally, barely noticing the fact that Spike was hissing. Seems that despite taking control of my gob, he still couldn't speak in English. My arm now in place to be healed, I used my other arm to check my pockets for a potion. I found one and opened it with my teeth, before pouring half the contents on my arm where it had snapped, and drank the other half, sighing in bliss as my arm and various bruises healed. My arm numbed, as the potion that soaked it was absorbed, acting as a temporary painkiller. I had learnt that after my fight with Jade, the potion healed any wounds, but unless the injuries were internal, the injuries healed, but the pain stuck around, but if you poured potion onto the wound, it acted as a numbing agent.

Grabbing Venom, I started my trek up the track, looking for my companions. I didn't have to go far to find Tifa, who had just finished using a potion to heal a few minor bruises. Lucky bitch. I broke my arm, and she gets away with a couple of bruises. Then again, she **was** prepared; I was shoved out, against my will, like it not. We started to move up the track, looking for Cloud and Mr. T. We found both of them waiting patiently at the side of the track, looking like they had been arguing again.

"See, you're alive." The obnoxious git smirked.

"Fuck you! You broke my arm!" I snapped at him.

Barret shrugged.

"So far, everything is going as planned." Barret began, ignoring my cry of 'You **planned** to break my arm!' "Better not let your guard down 'till we get to the Sector 5 reactor. Biggs, Wedge an' Jessie have everything set up. So MOVE it. Well, the reactors just down this tunnel."

The group started walking down the tunnel, (all we seem to **be** doing now) when a group of Shin-Ra moans came, weapons drawn. I yanked my gunblade from its sheath, and stood ready in my casual stance. Of course, Barret and Tifa didn't have to do anything to actually be ready to fight. Cloud pulled his Buster Sword from the magnetic locks on his back. 12 Moans, 4 heroes. Man, they don't exactly make this fair, do they? Those soldiers are going to be slaughtered. I decided to make the first move. The nearest soldier aimed his machine gun at me, and grunted as I slammed my tail into his stomach, in a spin that ended in my weapon slashing halfway through another's throat. The soldier clawed at his throat, a look of horror on his face, before he dropped to the floor in a puddle of blood. Tifa ran up to the winded trooper and snapped his neck, before snapping a sidekick at another, breaking his jaw. A 4th soldier aimed his weapon at Tifa, but was cut down by rapid fire from Barret, who then shifted his aim towards a pair soldiers who were standing right next to each other, cutting them both down in one go. Cloud charged at a lone trooper, impaling him on the end of the huge sword. The spiky haired swordsman raised an eyebrow as the soldier clung to life, weakly raising his gun in an effort to take Cloud with him into death. Cloud responded by rolling his eyes, before head butting the trooper and ripped his sword out through his side. I watched the others fighting when my now enhanced hearing heard some idiot trying to sneak up on me. I waited until he was nearer, before swinging Venom upwards behind me, slicing through flesh and bone. I turned around and watched as the soldier, whom had a surprised look on his face started to slide in half. Spike really seemed to have no qualms about killing, even if this wasn't food that was being slaughtered. I ducked under a baton that was swung in my direction, shooting the assailant in the chest. The trooper staggered back, blood spilling from his mouth. Tifa executed a flying kick that flew past me and into a moan who was about to prime a grenade. The soldier fell to the ground, where Tifa stamped on his throat, not hard enough to break it, but more than enough to crush the man's windpipe. Cloud swung his sword around, slashing partway through one's skull.

One of the soldiers charged at Barret, swinging his baton in a wide arc, to which Barret slammed his gun-arm into the soldier's torso and opened fire. The soldier shuddered as each bullet tore through his body, before going limp. The soldier with the broken jaw primed a grenade and threw it in my direction. I absently watched the bomb drift closer, before slamming the blunt end of Venom against it, returning it to the sender. The grenade blew up in front of the soldier, sending him flying against the wall, and slid down it, leaving a bloody trail. I turned my gaze upon the others again, pausing only to wrap my tail around a soldier's neck and crush it. They were scavenging the bodies, taking any gil or useful items that they could find. I started searching the bodies of the last pair I'd killed, finding only 127 gil between them. We regrouped after all bodies had been searched. None of the others had any luck in finding anything other than a low amount of gil. After evenly dividing it, we re-started our trek down the tunnel. Barret turned to me, looking at me with a new-found respect.

"Nice work with those damn Shinra." He grinned, checking his gun-arm just for something to do.

"Thanks." I grunted in return.

He looked like he was about to reply Cloud interrupted us.

"We have a problem." He said, stopping in his tracks.

We all looked at what he was looking at. Filling the entire tunnel, was a series of blue light beams

"Those light beams are the Shinra security sensors. After coming this far, only an amateur would get caught by these." He informed us, eyes narrowed. "No doubt they know we're here somewhere, but this would also tell them which way we're going."

"Damn!" Barret cursed loudly, glaring at the sensor.

Cloud started looking around, trying to find a way around. I also looked, somehow forgetting how I got past this part of the game. Both of us turned our gaze to the hole near the light beam.

"Over there." I said, pointing at the opening. All of us walked up to it, examining whether or not it could be used. I looked at myself, then at the hole again. Despite the discomfort that came from the extra appendage, and the fine row of small spikes travelling down my spine to the tip of my tail, I could fit. I was taller than Cloud, though not as heavily built; he could fit. Tifa was as tall as me, and could easily fit. Barret however, it was hard to tell. He was both taller than me, and had a **much** heavier build. He seemed to have the same thoughts.

"That's one damn tiny hole. You tellin' me to squeeze into that hole to get under the plate? No way!" Barret scowled, before getting a resigned look on his face. "Yo, Cloud, what're we gonna do?"

"Isn't it your choice?" I asked him.

"He's the expert, not me. If this is the only way…" He trailed off.

"We're going down." Cloud told us, before pushing himself down, with out waiting for a response.

"But, damn man, that thing gives me the chills." He complained to no one in particular, as Tifa slid down.

I gave him a sympathetic look before diving down head first. I slid down the chute, for a few seconds before coming out in a hallway that only had one way out. I stood up, dusting myself off, before falling backwards as Barret shot out, knocking my feet from under me. I pulled myself to my feet, glaring at the giant hulk of muscle and not much else. Cloud sniggered at us, seeming to enjoy us looking like total prats. Tifa just shook her head. I snarled at Barret, who as if to add to the insult, didn't realize just what it was he had done.

"Lets just get on with it." Tifa said, grabbing the collar of my coat and forcibly dragging me away from the source of all my misery.

After she finally let go, allowing me to go where I want, I looked over the edge of the balcony. Down below, were the slums. A nasty scuzy place made even more obvious from the fact that you could see the pollution visibly from way up here. I leant over the banister, preparing to spit. I was stopped by Tifa when she spammed me on the back of my head.

"Don't even think about it." She warned me, giving me a hard look.

I held up my hands in sign of surrender. Hey, I'm not the martial artist here, she is, and she probably wouldn't hesitate to kick my ass. However, as soon as her back was turned, I flipped a one-gil coin over the edge. I turned to face Cloud and Barret as they walked up.

"We're splitting up. Meet by the entrance to the reactor." Barret ordered us, before running away. Hey, we aren't that bad are we?

I shrugged, climbing up a nearby ladder. Another catwalk, crawling with moans, who turned to face me and my charming good looks. Or not, as they pull out machine guns. Unsheathing Venom, I scan for a way to the reactor, or at the very least, an exit that wasn't the way I came in from. Ahh, the sweet smell of sweet success; a door that leads right towards the facility. Only problem, it's behind all of the soldiers, who are aiming for me. This leaves a diabolical choice. Forwards, to the objective, but happens to face almost certain death, or backwards, away from the Mako reactor, but will guarantee me surviving. Hard choice, no? I ran forwards, swinging my weapon left and right, and pulling the trigger every time the blade was in the middle. If anyone got too close to kill like that, I used my tail to throw them over the edge. A sound strategy, that despite Spike **screaming** in my mind that it wouldn't work, worked. I made a habit of checking the bodies of those who didn't fly over the edge for valuables, and looted a massive total of… a hi-potion… What a lousy group of guards, sharing one lousy hi-potion between them. They weren't even holding any cash. That's just cheap, even for ShinRa. Put off by this turn of events, I walked through the door to the reactor, and found everyone waiting for me.

"Took your damn time!" Barret spat.

"…"

"Whatever, are we going no or what?"

Hey, wasn't 'whatever' Squall's favourite word? Since when does Barret get rights to it? Whatever, it's not my problem. I looked around the reactor. It was… Big. We were standing on a platform above a large batch of refined Mako, if what Cloud says is true, and should be harmless. As if to prove a point, he slid down a pipe and splashed into the stuff.

"What have I got to loose." I said to myself, before jumping off the platform and into the knee-high gunk. "Eeew. This is worse than crap."

"And you think I like it?" Cloud asked me.

"Yes. You were the moron who went diving in." I snapped. "Plus you SOLDIERs have to have at least one bath in this stuff."

"Mako enhancement isn't having a bath in refined Mako. It involves a special procedure that involves it being put into your blood stream." Cloud argued.

"So you drink it instead… That's better is it?" I shot back at him.

Cloud looked at me, appalled. "Not only is that not how it works, and a sure-fire way to get Mako poisoning, that has become one of the most revolting things I have ever heard. It involves… Forget it." Cloud finally gave up, paddling his way to the beach of metal.

Smirking in victory, I followed suit, Tifa and Barret behind. After we spent several minutes drying off, we went to the door that led to the core of the reactor. Having played the game so many times, I knew what the layout was like, and it was no different, even when I'm actually there, in person. Even the small gap in the floor was still there. One small hop and we're over that. A quick shimmy down the ladder, and there we are, at the platform that had the catwalk to where we shall set the bomb. Cloud grabs the bomb and is about to start to set it, when he has what can only be described as a fit. Just as he faints, I hear a loud buzzing in my head.

Grabbing my forehead, I try to will the migraine away, when I saw something. Or rather, some things. Visions, images, which kept on flashing in my mind, and with them, came a surge of emotion that wasn't mine. But some kept returning, having the same people or things. A girl, with a black trench coat, holding dual pistols, wanting nothing more than to return home. A girl, depressed, away from her home, a foreign land. A girl who was part cat, or looked that way, uses claws as a weapon, jealous over someone, a crush? Those 3 kept reappearing, never in the same image, but more striking about those images was with whom they were with. The gun-girl, she was stood beside Squall, Seifer, Zell, Rinoa… Final Fantasy VIII. She was fighting alongside the heroes of FF8. The depressed girl, she was also with the people of FF8, but the circumstances were different it seemed. She was under their care, she wasn't fighting in any of the flashes, except for drawing from NORG, but instead, it seemed the SeeDs were trying to help here, rather than her being a comrade to them. The last girl, the cat-girl, she was the same as the first girl, but different. She was instead alongside Zidane, Vivi, Dagger… but for the same reasons it seemed. Then everything went black.

'_You know what this means, Jethro, don't you?'_ Spike asked me.

_No. What does it mean? That we're not the only people to be in this situation?_ I mentally replied, slow as ever.

I heard Spike laughing. Glad he found it amusing.

_What happened?_

'_Seems you'll have to be careful around unprocessed _Mako_, I felt… something like a mental link.'_

Great, so now I can't go around unrefined Mako, I wonder if that counts as the plain old Lifestream as well. I opened my eyes, and saw Mr. T looking down at me.

"I pity da fool, who faints in reactor cores." He said.

"Eh?" I asked, blinking in confusion.

When I looked again, I felt Spike sniggering in the back of my mind and saw Barret looking at me concerned. Tifa was in the background, asking Cloud if he was all right.

"I asked, are you awright?" He repeated himself.

"Eh? Yeah, just peachy." I muttered, vowing to somehow get my revenge on the reptilian fiend.

"What happened, you stopped breathing for a while, made me nervous."

"I just found out I get some kind of mental link when I'm around unprocessed Mako. Next time, I'll simply guard the ladder." I told him, truthfully… sort of.

He grunted, before turning to Cloud and checking that he set the bomb properly, ordered us to move out. Back the way we came, fighting a few minor defences. Do they honestly expect a measly sentry turret to wipe us out? Up the elevator we go and Bob's yer uncle. After the other 3 opened the doors, we charged out, to the junction. Barret waved to the left.

"This way!" He yelled, before skidding to a stop as a couple of squads of Shinra soldiers came marching in. "Shinra soldiers?" He pivoted around and charged for the other exit, but came to the same result. "SHIT! What the hell's goin' on?"

"… A trap…" Cloud muttered to himself, hand itching towards the handle of his sword.

We all turned to look the way we came from as footsteps came from that direction, and out came a fat, snobby looking, nearly bald, blond haired man, wearing an expensive looking red suit.

"Presi… President Shinra?" Barret stuttered, looking lost.

"Why is the President here?" Tifa asked herself, frowning in thought.

"It's obvious." I said, looking at the fatso. "We're the only people to actively fight against him. He'd want to see to our fate personally, to make sure we don't spread to the whole population of Midgar."

The President seemed to nod at my explanation, confirming it.

"Hmm… You all must be that… What was it?"

He knew who we were; you could see it in his eyes. I see that look at school every day, from the bullies. Unlike the stereotypical bully, the ones I have to put up with have a combination of brain **and** brawn. Shinra was no different. He had the brains, and he had the brawns in the form of an army. Unfortunately, Barret took the taunt badly. He was visibly shaking with rage.

"AVALNCHE! And don't ya forget it! So you're President Shinra, huh?"

Cloud chose that moment to step forwards.

"Long time no see, President."

Even though his ugly mug didn't show it, Shinra was confused. Again, you had to look at his eyes.

"…Long time no see? Oh… you. You're the one who quit SOLDIER and joined AVALANCHE. I knew you'd been exposed to Mako, from the look in your eyes… Tell me, traitor, what was your name?"

"Cloud."

The President looked satisfied, but not convinced. It hadn't been a taunt when he'd asked for Cloud's name.

"Forgive me for asking, but I can't be expected to remember each person's name. Unless you become another Sephiroth. Yes, Sephiroth… He was brilliant. Perhaps too brilliant…"

Cloud frowned, his eyes drooping at the name.

"Sephiroth……?"

Barret suddenly ran forwards, fist clenched.

"Don't give a damn 'bout none of that! This place is goin' up with a big BANG soon! Serves y'all right!" He gloated.

The President got that look on his face again. And let us commence with the taunting.

"And such a waste of good fireworks it shall be, just to get rid of vermin like you."

I ignored Barret's rant, instead, looking over the railing and watching a helicopter rise up, until it was right next to Shinra. I quickly unsheathed Venom, spinning around as I heard something coming. At some point, all the soldiers had left, but now, there was a big robot hovering near.

"Now then, if you'll excuse me." The President said, jumping into the helicopter.

Cloud charged past me. "Wait, President!" He called, as the chopper flew off.

"Hey Cloud, we need to do somthin' 'bout him!" Barret called out, pointing at Air Buster.

Air Buster responded by driving Tifa and Barret further along the bridge.

"Help, Cloud. THIS is in SOLDIER?" Tifa asked, moving back.

"No way, it's just a machine!" Cloud responded, pulling out his sword.

"I don't care what it is! I'm gonna bust him up!" Barret declared.

Cloud and I looked at each other, nodded and ran to the robot. It had positioned itself so Tifa and Barret were one side; Cloud and me were the other.

"Tifa, you're healer. Use that restore Materia I gave you!" Cloud ordered. "Spike, you're backup healer, use phoenix downs whenever anyone is taken out! Barret, you and I are the main attack!"

Natural born leader, that guy is. Barret nodded in agreement and leveled his arm at the machine, promptly opening fire. Cloud slashed at the back of Air Buster. I decided to take pot shots at the robot whenever an opening revealed itself, firing 50. cal bullets into it. Air Buster decided it was high time to get some retribution, and shot Cloud with a hidden machine gun, riddling his body with bullets. Almost instantaneously, a green appeared and healed the wounds. Tifa was taking her job as healer seriously, seeing as that had no delay before healing. But then Air Buster shot a grenade launcher at Barret, almost knocking him out. Since it would be a while before Tifa could use her cure again, I threw a potion over the machine and at Barret, who caught it and drank the entire thing. Once he was healed, a red light appeared at his feet, and he fired Big Shot at Air Buster, damaging it some. Cloud then used Braver, leaping up and slashing the robot. It didn't cut the thing in half, but it did leave a large gash, revealing the internal circuits.

"Cloud, do you have Lightning Materia?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Use it in that large gash, after I freeze it." I said, readying myself to use Ice.

Again he nodded, and started to ready himself for using Bolt. Ready, I cast Ice at the gash, and watched as the entire inside became frozen in solid ice. Then Cloud used Bolt, which hit the Ice. Now, everyone knows that ice is solid water, and water conducts electricity, so when Bolt hit the ice, it seriously screwed up Air Buster. For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then the robot blew up, destroying the bit of the bridge that it was on, the bit, that happened to have me and Cloud standing on. It was weird, one minute, solid ground, the next; the ground just disappeared, quite literally. I started my decent to the slums when I felt a hand grab the end of my tail. This didn't help in the slightest, because when it stopped my fall, it felt like my tail was about to disconnect from the rest of my body, causing me to give an inhuman cry, making Cloud let go in shock. So, there I was, falling. Didn't stop me from cursing Cloud for dropping me.

"Fucking skethn're…" Was all that I managed before my vision went blue.


	6. I wanna go home so does she

Chapter 6: I wanna go home… so does she?

A bright blue light. A light of bright blue. A light of blue that happens to be bright. Does it really matter how I describe it? It's the same thing, a lot f bright blue light. That is all I can see, so I can't really say much else, can I? Unless you'd rather hear just how to swear in Water Dragonion. Tough, I like having loads of ways of swearing that no one else can understand. Of course, you'd probably like to hear just what the cause of the swearing is. Multiple things.

One: The numbing on my arm has worn off, leaving my arm hurting like a bitch.

Two: I have a serious migraine. But I don't think its natural; it seems to have something to do with this bloody bright blue light.

I'm not one to admit I'm scared, but right now, I'M TERRIFIED! I can't move, so I'm still holding onto Venom, tightly, making my hand start to ache. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this is the tunnel to heaven, since I can see a bright **white** light in the distance… MWAA! I don't wanna be dead. I strongly urge my body to go in the opposite direction, away from this blooming light. I want to be back in Midgar, with AVALANCHE… no, scratch that, I wanna be back home, with me and Spike in our separate bodies. Not that I'm complaining about the fusion, mind, the strength, agility and everything else about this body is cool, but it does get rather tedious after so long of people giving you looks like you're about to go eat their children or something.

Aww, I'm closer to the light now. I'm still trying to go the opposite direction, so does the lizard within, but I just can't move. Oh, bugger it, I give up, if I'm dead, hey, at least the light usually means Heaven, as opposed to Hell. However, it seems I gave up at just the wrong time, since I now have the sensation of falling, and the white light seems to be going upwards now, instead of closer. Ironic, isn't it, and just that little corny sounding. I submerge into a watery substance, if my sense of touch hasn't failed me, but as my head goes under, I feel an… **extreme **amount of pain in my head, and I am most certainly not over reacting when I start screaming in pain… not a girly prissy scream, mind you, so I still have that much pride left. That's got to account for something, right? Let's recap: I'm falling from the reactor, I get eaten by a bright blue light, I zoom along in a tunnel of said light towards a bright white light, I start falling, I submerge in a watery substance, I start to feel extreme pain… Do you understand just what is happening? Because I sure as hell don't. But wait, it gets better. After I finally scream myself hoarse, the light turns even brighter, forcing me to shut my eyes. After several seconds, I can feel the ground.

Did I mention before that I'm not wearing shoes? My feet had changed in the body fusion, so I now have digigrade feet, y'know, where I stand on my toes, rather than my heel? And replacing my nails, I have large talons, which, like the spikes that go down my spine, are nowhere near sharp enough to use as a lethal weapon, but would still hurt quite a bit if I kicked you. So, with my shoeless feet, I can feel the ground. Steel. I open my eyes, not sure I even want to know where I am. I'm in a small, dingy steel room, which looked familiar. This room was actually a cell, from... Final Fantasy VIII (I'm not even going to bother ask just why I'm suddenly in the wrong game), but I was in too much pain, and still terrified to realize it, or care. Why am I terrified? I fear what I can't explain or do anything against, and this pain, which feels like it'll kill me, I sure as hell can't explain, since I knew it wasn't natural, and I couldn't shoot it with my gunblade, could I? That, and Spike's instincts are telling us to be terrified. I'm pretty certain that looking in a mirror right then would reveal a face that had raw fear as the facial expression. I felt tears form in my eyes, probably from the pain. I heard something. Looking around, I saw one of the 3 girls in my vision. The one wearing a trench coat. Now that I can see her properly (even if she was facing away from me), if I hadn't been in pain, I would have thought of her as pretty hot, and most probably a tomboy, at least, that was the impression given by her choice of clothing. Great. I find a girl who looks like my type, and I'm in too much pain to make any moves, not that I would anyway, since I'm happy to be me, Jethro 'Spike' Logan, the loner, but still… why in the hell am I saying this, I'm supposed to be describing me, and my pain… I tried to move towards her, but my movements were sluggish, as if I were under water. I must still be under that substance from earlier. Just then, the pain intensified, as if resisting my attempt to escape from the agony of being in its presence. A hoarse groan came from my mouth, and seemed to echo, somehow intensifying the hurt. I probably had pleading eyes as I looked at her, hoping she'd hear me and somehow help.

"Help me." I begged.

The plea did the same as the groan, making me hurt more than I could bear. I let go of the gunblade, putting both hands to my head, screaming silently. I didn't, couldn't hear whether the weapon clattered against the floor, the pain was so much, for all I knew, the thing may have gone off, but all I could hear was my own haggard breaths. That's all I can remember, before my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and blacking out.

* * *

"It's a good job you were checking on her." That voice… "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it." A different person, but the same accent.

"Any idea what happened?" Jade?

"Maybe it has something to do with this fusion of bodies."

"Maybe. This **is** the first time something like this has happened." So this is Hell, having to hear Jade talk.

I opened my eyes. Standing over me was a pair of girls, one of which was Jade, who for some reason was looking very relieved. The other one… creepy, she had the same build, facial structure… Jade has a twin? I groaned shutting my eyes, remembering the pain I'd just gone through, feeling myself drop to the borderline of consciousness. I heard the pair turn to look at me. I searched through my mind for the lizard within, and found that his part of our mind was out of it.

"Did you know that Jethro isn't the only animal fusion?" The other girl… I'm going to assume it's safe to think that she's another PS2.

"No… I knew he was the first, but… another?"

"Yeah. Some girl fused with her cat. Makes it interesting though, because she's in Final Fantasy IX. She fits right in." Were they referring to the cat-girl from my vision?

"Heh, lucky her, the only one here who can even know what it's like to not be human is Nanaki."

"Which is the reason, I suppose, for putting a… what's-it-called-again in the picture? Along with a soldier from the same game?"

"A Vortigaunt. Wonderful people. I thought it would be cool for him to have a background here, and those two fit it job description. You never know, AVALANCHE's adventures may come across the pair."

"That'll be a sight. How would Jethro know how to react to a Vortigaunt greeting, if its some weird thingamabob?"

"I'll figure something out. I'd rather leave messing with his head as a last resort."

"Good."

"Of course, once he really gets going, then he'll finish this and be long gone from this game, before Maggie even gets halfway through."

"Maggie's already finished the first disc. She'll be gone way before Jethro here even gets to Junon."

"Want to bet on that?"

"Sure, easy win for me."

So I'm now being used as a form of gambling? If I'd had more strength, I would start routine 'Pissed Off,' which involves me crossing my arms, glaring at them, before proceeding to claw out their eyes. I'm sure this Maggie wouldn't be too pleased at the prospect either. I'm going to assume Maggie is the girl I saw just now and in my vision. At least I have a name to associate with her now. I heard the pair of PS2s walking away, before my vision turned black.

* * *

I woke up, and instantly regretted it. Not only do I have some foul tasting substance lingering in my throat, my head throbbing and my arm still giving my a large amount of grief, but I also have Cloud sticking his ugly mug right in my face. I reacted the only way I felt fitting: I socked him in the face. He reeled back, a large red fist mark covering his cheek.

"What was that for?" He growled at me, his eyes hardened.

His look quickly changed to one of sympathy however, when I found I couldn't get up. Even the slightest movement was making me want to puke. I have a migraine, wonderful. Add the fact that Spike is awake now and also has a migraine; I'm amazed a phoenix down was all it took to help me… us wake up.

"I don't take well to people getting in my face under normal circumstances, but after I wake up, you're lucky that was all you got, especially with what I feel like right now." I hissed at him.

"What's wrong?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

Aeris. She was looking at me, concerned. I guess the pain showed, I was probably visibly trying to swallow down the bile that was forcing its way up my throat. She crouched down besides me and put a hand on my forehead. Forgetting her healing abilities, I was about to warn her to back off, when a faint glow surrounded her, and a felt all the pain disperse from my body, and it wasn't like the painkiller effect of the potions, the pain was actually gone. Even the migraine. I leapt to my feet, looking at the one who had just swept away the pain.

"Thanks." I said, nodding politely.

"No problem, Spike." She responded, cheerfully.

I raised an eyebrow ridge and turned to look at Cloud, who shrugged.

"It was tell her who you are or she hits your head with her staff thinking you're a monster." He said. "I almost went with the latter."

I whipped my tail in his direction, but he ducked under it this time.

"Where are we anyway?" I asked, looking around. We were on top of a building, but not the church. The church was right next to us however.

"Are you familiar with the Turks?" Cloud asked.

"Everyone knows them. I've never met them, but I know that they are the Black Op unit of Shinra. Their skills even surpass those of a SOLDIER 1st class. The only one who was superior to them was Sephiroth, but he was more of a soldier rather than a behind the scenes operative." I replied.

Cloud nodded.

"We found you right here, after we climbed out of that church, where we just escaped Reno of the Turks. He was after Aeris here. I don't think he counted on her employing an Ex-SOLDIER as a bodyguard."

"But he still could have taken you…"

"That's where the definition 'escape' came in. We climbed out of the roof. We found you, we poured phoenix down down your throat, and you know the rest."

"So, where too?" I questioned, knowing full well where we were off to.

"My home." Aeris piped up. "For some reason, they never try to get me there. Except for…"

She stopped herself before she gave away too much about herself and looked at the ground. I didn't pressure her to tell us everything, nor did Cloud, instead we started to skip from building to building, Cloud and Aeris conversing about the Turks. I didn't bother listening, why should I? If they include me in their chat, I'll talk, but otherwise, I like to keep to myself. I landed on the ground proper, just after some weird man walked off. I stepped forwards and heard Cloud land behind me. Aeris took her time to get down, swinging her arms. I grunted; Cloud looked back towards the church, Aeris tried to get her breath back.

"Which way?" I asked, stretching my tail.

Aeris pointed down a smelly path. "That way."

Cloud nodded, starting to lead the way. He tried to strike up a conversation.

"So… you live alone?"

Aeris gave Cloud an amused look.

"No, I live with my mum." She replied.

The former SOLDIER nodded, absent-mindedly. I rolled my eyes; the idiot was acting like a love struck schoolgirl (no offence, to any love struck school girls reading) and had somehow become even denser than he was originally. I muttered something in Water Dragonion, earning an odd look from my two companions. I glared at them and they promptly averted their gazes. We entered the town of Sector 5 and I looked around. It wasn't that bad a place. They even had a giant outdoor TV. The only downfall is the fact that the place is heavily polluted. I noticed a large crowd and went over to see what was going on. In the centre of the gathering, was a large crater, and a lot of mangled bodies. Wait a minute… Shinra bodies? I looked up. I couldn't see the catwalks, not even the part that blew up, but I have a feeling I'm looking at the result of my fight with the security up there, or at least, the ones I threw off. Then that would mean that the crater was caused from… My coin! The coin I flipped over the edge. Man, I didn't expect to see the result.

"It almost hit me!" A man screamed. "It crashed right behind me!"

From the look, (and smell) of it, the man had shit himself when the coin landed behind him, creating the mini crater. I backed away, slowly, and followed Cloud and Aeris, who had just emerged from some pipe. They started towards the other side of town, where Aeris' home was. Unlike the rest of the hood, her house was very clean, so clean, that flowers were actually growing in a garden, to the right of the house. Aeris just walked right in, Cloud close behind. I just stood there, not wanting to get another odd look over my appearance if it could be helped. That was kind of the plan, but Aeris came out and started pulling at me, trying to get me to come in.

"Come on, meet my mom." She nagged, pulling my tail.

"Not happening." I said, firmly.

"Cloud, help me get him in."

Cloud walked out and pulled my tail, hard. So hard, I fell to the ground and was dragged along. Seeing only one option, I grabbed hold of the doorframe, clamping on with all my might, despite the pain in my tail. However, I was still half in the house.

"Mom!" Aeris called out.

"Let me go." I hissed, glaring at Cloud.

"Why?"

God, is this moron dumb or what? I never believed the sayings that blondes are dumb, but this idiot is quickly changing that opinion. I pulled at the doorframe, desperately trying to get out, but strong as I was, I couldn't compare to Mr. Muscle there. Aww, hell, the doorframe is starting to crack. I heard Elmyra come down the stairs. Cloud tugged harder and my fingers slipped. So, now I am lying, ungracefully, in the middle of a stranger's living room. Not what I have in mind when it comes to meeting a friend's mother. I am going to kick Cloud in a very important part of his body for this. Namely, his family jewels. Call me sadistic, but he is asking for it.

"Hi mom. This is Cloud, my bodyguard, and Spike."

Amazingly enough, Elmyra didn't react to my presence, other than a brief glance. She seemed worried over Aeris though, it was easy to hear that in her voice.

"Bodyguard...? You mean you were followed again? Are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?" Yeah, a stereotypical mother.

"I'm all right. I had Cloud with me."

I pulled myself to my feet, glaring at Cloud.

"Pleased to meet you, miss." I said, holding out my hand.

She seemed rather, confused, as she shook my hand. I turned, and walked up to the dumb blond.

"I'm going to get some supplies. Anything you need?" I muttered.

"Just a few potions... maybe a tent if you can afford it." Was the quick response. "Where shall I meet you?"

"Near the entrance to the town, by the pipe."

Cloud nodded and I started to leave when Aeris grabbed my arm.

"Why are you leaving?"

I looked at the Cetra's mother and frowned when I saw her amusment at the situation. I grinned at the Ancient and said the first thing that came to mind.

"I've got to leave; else Cloud there will get jealous of my charming good looks, especially when you start complimenting me on them."

I ignored Cloud's glare. Aeris looked at me closely, concentrating.

"Wow... You look... like you need a bath. The mold is covering your entire skin."

Cute. She actually left me momentarily unable to think of a witty reply. Cloud snorted. I pointed at him, eyes narrowed.

"Don't encourage her." I then pointed at the culprit. "I'll have you know that green is **in** these days."

Cloud sniggered as I walked out of the door. Now, where to go? Using my extensive knowledge of the world of FF7, I quickly found my way to the weapon shop. Inside, the shop-keeper raised an eyebrow at me but did little else. I asked to see his merchandise, which he started showing off, (though I don't see why, his goods weren't that much better than our starter weapons), and something caught my eye. A new gunblade, but it could be customized. I settled for a revolver style gunblade, with an engraving that the guy said would suit me perfectly.

"Come back in a couple of hours. I should have it done then. Customization is on the house, because this is the first time anyone's asked for one." The shop-keeper said. "I'm having it engraved with a Laixiu. They come from a Wutain legend, but I'm not familiar with how the legend goes. All I know is that they were lizard-like creatures which were 'powerful and graceful hunters and extremely intelligent and protective'."

Cool, when we get to Wutai, I'm going to have to check out this legend. I pulled out venom and handed it to him.

"How much for this one?"

The man examined it before pulling out a wad of Gil and handed it to me. I counted the cash before nodding. Anything else now. Yes, a knife. May come in handy if anyone disarms me. Most people would probably go for the gun as a secondary weapon, but at close range, the knife beats the gun, and that would be the only way for me to be disarmed.

"I'd like a combat knife."

The man pulled out a knife and sheaf.

"30Gil."

I handed him three notes and started to attach the knife's sheaf to my belt (the one looked like it hung loosely). The knife was nothing special, just a regular serrated edge knife that you always see in the movies. Nodding, I walked out, making a mental note to return in a couple of hours.

The trip to the item shop was uneventful; I got seven potions and a tent, even though I don't see the use in it at this moment in time. I did buy myself a nice new watch though. I can now tell the time, yay. This has nothing to do with the pickup time for my new weapon. I just want a watch.

I'll tell you this though, I'm hungry. I haven't had anything to eat since... the crisps in the train to Sector 7. Does this town have a fish & chip shop anywhere? If they don't, I am going to be pissed. The poor sods got lucky this time, I found something even better. A restaurant that made home-made food. And it got supplies from the top of the plate. I wonder how? Not that I care, as long as the food is edible.

I ordered the usual food I ask for in these types of restaurants: rump steak (medium/well-done), mushrooms, chips, baked beans, more chips, ribs, horse radish source, yet more fries, more beans, onions, and another steak. I don't think I missed anything out. It was refreshing not being given odd looks because of my looks but my eating habits. And I could more than afford the meal, despite the steep price, selling Venom saw to that. No, the meal didn't drain all my cash, because the prices weren't all that high to begin with, this is the slums y'know. And the owners of the place looked like they didn't need the money too much.

When I returned to the weapon shop, the owner grinned at me and reached under his desk. He pulled out my new weapon, a sleek red gunblade. It had the revolver's handle/gun, but the blade was actually the same as Tidus' longsword. I grabbed it by the handle, noting the comfort it gave its holder. The weapon was pretty light, and very well balanced. I looked at the side of the blade where the engraving was. A strange lizard creature stood, tail raised defensively, on one of its hind legs, the other doing what looked like a spinning kick, while the forelegs were doing an x shaped slash, fire tracing the movements of the vicious looking claws. It's hard to describe what the Liaxiu actually looked like, so I'm afraid you'll have to use your imagination. But the engraving looked very cool, and... Captivating, I stared at it for a couple of seconds, admiring the skill put behind it.

"Glad you like it. My friend, who did that, almost refused, saying something about how Wutain lore should stay Wutain. He was also the one who forged my supply. Says that model of Gunblade is called Talon."

"Tell him he did a perfect job." I muttered, flipping the blade before sheathing it.

He nodded and I walked outside, have no more business being there. I wanted to test out my new weapon, but for all I knew, Cloud may be waiting for me already. I moved towards the pipe in the wall, which, I recalled, was where a Sephiroth clone lived. Just as I got to the makeshift home, a trio of muggers jogged leisurely up to me. Two of them pulled out knives, while the third held one of those double sword things, like the ones Zidane uses.

"Give us all yer money."

Wonderful, they actually think I can be mugged. How do they even know that I actually **have** money? Muttering, I pulled out Talon, this is a great opportunity to test out this glorious new weapon. I stood, in my relaxed stance and waited for them to make a move. One of the suckers ran at me, trying to slash my stomach. I stabbed him in the chest, and pulled the trigger. The thug flew back, blood pouring from the wide the wide gap that now occupied his chest. The other knife yielder charged at me, yelling. Rolling my eyes, I punched the idiot as soon as he came within reach. His head snapped back, with a sickening crack. The last one twirled his weapon around expertly. He studied me, looking for any sign of weakness. The only weakness I knew I had was that my stance wasn't one of the most defensive, because my weapon was held casually at my side, rather than held where it would easier defend my face or torso. But the advantage was that there are no tell-tale signs that I'm about to attack. That and it makes me look cool.

The mug jumped towards me, swinging his weapon at my face. I ducked under the lethal weapon, bringing my own blade towards his torso. Talon met the other end of his sword, we remained in that position for a couple of seconds, before he lashed out with his foot. I grunted in pain, and my hold faltered for just a second, enough time for him to swing the other end at me. I didn't try to block it, dodging was the only way out of dying. He still managed to cut into my right arm, quite deeply. I kicked the man in the stomach in retaliation, before using my tail to sweep him off his feet. He dropped the double sword as he fell, and landed on his back, grunting. He rolled over and reached for his weapon, but I aimed the gunblade at his hand and fired. He screamed in pain and started to use his other hand to grab a gun that had been stuffed in his belt. I kicked the weapon from his hand before he could aim it and glared at him. Turning, I almost walked right into Cloud, who looked as though he had been studying my fight.

"Not one for playing around, are you?" He asked, looking at the results of the battle, if it could be called that.

"And why should I? Toying with your opponent is going to achieve nothing but wearing yourself out. And why kill someone who can no longer fight." I added, as he raised an eyebrow at the still living mugger.

The blond nodded, shooting an understanding grin at me.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, wiping my gunblade clean of blood, before sheathing it.

"We go to Sector 7, we announce the fact that we aren't dead, and we see if there are any more missions planned in the near future." He grinned.

"Sounds like a plan to me, sir." I mock saluted him, using my stereotypical soldier voice.

We both shared a laugh, and, I do believe that this is the first time we have actually acted like friends to each other. Well, better a friend than an enemy. We both leisurely walked towards the hole that will lead us to Sector 7. As we got there, Cloud did a double take and started mumbling. I looked up and saw what he was staring at. I groaned, loudly, slapping my palm to my forehead.

Aeris was standing there, waiting for us. Why am I surprised?


	7. Road to Hell

Chapter 7: Road to Hell

I sighed angrily as Cloud and Aeris' voices rose yet another notch in their argument to preserve world peace... ok, that wasn't true, but it does seem like it with the way that they're going at it. Ok, right now they are in the name calling stages, or Aeris is at least. I smirked at some of the more inventive names coming from that mouth of hers, where'd she learn words like that? Or is she inventing some solely for this moment? Not like I care, I've been lounging around for an hour waiting for them to shut up and get a move on. At the moment, the only entertainment I have available are the games on my mobile, but 3D Space Invaders got boring quickly.

Cloud leaned towards Aeris, for what reason I dunno. Spike whispered something in my mind, though he could have shouted and the two lovebirds over there wouldn't have heard, even if they'd been listening. Sniggering at the idea my pet had planted in my mind, I pulled myself up. Cloud and Aeris were now practically yelling in each others faces, when I draped my arms across their shoulders.

"Guys?"

Both of them stopped yelling, coming to a mutual agreement to glare at me, testing the theory that it was indeed possible to burn a hole through someone's head. It didn't happen, thankfully. I tightened my grasp around their necks, ready for the diabolical plan I had.

"I've got an idea. How about..."

At that point I shoved them towards each other, banging their heads together. They both staggered backwards, looking dizzy.

"...We stop pissing around, and actually get going, before I drag both of you back to Aeris' house and lock you in."

Aeris recovered from her crash course on how to be a head-banger. She glared even harder at me. I didn't care, I was a heartless bastard, been called that plenty of times. However, I was surprised when she called my name in a sugar-sweet tone of voice.

"Oh, Spike..?"

Women are weird, but slow as I may be, I knew that she was anything but nice on the inside. However, I was **not** expecting her to swing her staff around and hit me in the face. And on the floor, I was vulnerable to the lethal bitch as she hit me repeatedly with that staff, which hurt by the way. I don't think my arm, which had been broken not a day earlier, was up to shielding myself, because I felt it fracture at a particularly vicious swing. That forced me to cradle my arm, moaning, but the Ancient swung her staff a last time, hitting me...

I actually heard Cloud wince at the blow, Aeris now had wide eyes and was apologizing repeatedly as I tried to get up. Tried being the key word there, but the injury in question would keep any self-respecting male on the floor a good 48 hours, minimum.

"Are you alright?" Aeris asked fearfully.

Yes, you better be scared, because once I recover, you are so going to slowly and painfully die. Screw Sephiroth's stabbing her; I'll cut a body part of at a time. Slow and so very painful. Despite that, I keep my sarcastic exterior up, better not let her on that I'm going to commit homicide on her.

"Sure." I respond in a very high pitched voice. "Don't worry. I was never planning on having kids anyway."

I sensed Cloud wince at that. I pulled out the hi-potion I found earlier and downed the entire flask. At least now I could stand, but the lingering pain, oh the pain. Now, I have a problem. I can pour another potion over the wound, so the pain'll go away, but that'll make it look like I've pissed myself. Or I can put up with the pain, and maintain my dignity. Hard choice, no?

* * *

I lagged behind the two lovebirds as we walked through what looked like a road under construction. My coat was tied around my waist, covering the wet patch that was the second potion I'd used in under a minute. I'm not sure if the combined might of the two potions was able to restore my ability to reproduce, I'm walking with a major limp, despite the wound being healed and the pain nulled, if only temporarily. I doubt either of them would have the guts to mention this incident to anyone, considering the rage I had been in for the last 20 minutes. At some point, I think I even used Cloud's sword as a throwing weapon. But I don't know for certain, my memory is never that good when I'm this pissed off at the world.

Yes, I'm still plotting my vengeance against the bloody bitch. I think I'll make Sephiroth's job easier and shoot her just before he can have the satisfaction of being the one who killed her. Maybe, I'll somehow convince Red to kill her when we're in the Shinra tower, or better yet, throw her off the roof of Shinra tower, and watch as she falls to her death, screaming all the way, yes... That works for me. Hell have no fury like a pissed off bipedal lizard, eh?

I'm torn from my musings at the sound of Cloud's sword being pulled into his battle stance. Subconsciously, or maybe it's Spike influencing me, I pulled my gunblade out, before looking at the monster. Ho-kay... We're fighting a house. How fun, what's it gonna do? Throw a brick at us? Heh, yea... and then if we just live long enough, it'll destroy itself because it threw one brick too many. Or perhaps there's a little gremlin inside we have to defeat? I sniggered at the thought.

_With Jethro acting so distracted, it was easy to nudge control of our body to me. He might not know it, but this house... thing... was dangerous, so unless I took initiative, he was going to get us killed. I understood why he was so distracted, I'm having a few plots for vengeance myself, since I felt it just as much as he did. But as least I know when the time and place to do so is. I must say that I love this weapon. Gunblade, eh? Fitting. I watched as Cloud leapt at the house swinging his oversized sword, slashing through the wall. Something made a snarl from within, snapping Jethro from his thoughts._

Ok... What is that? _He thought._

'As you would say... Hell if I know. You played this plenty, shouldn't you know?'_ I replied._

_I sensed him getting embarrassed._

I can't remember, all I've been doing for ages is the mini-games and attacking the bonus WEAPONS.

_Great, the self-acclaimed Final Fantasy Master has forgotten. I roll my eyes and sprint at the house, which I'm guessing is this creature's armour against any predators. Before I got to it, I received a face-full of some black inky substance, making me miss my slash, and hurting my eyes. This thing has just become the first thing I hate about this place, besides all the crap that my owner was bitching on about earlier._

I felt tears coming out as the ink, or whatever it was, continued to sting my eyes. I sighed in relief when someone, probably Aeris, poured a potion down my face, washing out the ink and relieving the pain. Once I could open my eyes again, I turned and thanked my healer, (yes, it was Aeris, yes, I still am plotting vengeance, but I should at least try to be civil before I carry out my plans) before charging at the house again, this time with me controlling my body for the most part.

If you don't understand how me and Spike's fusion works out, it goes like this: I mainly have control over my actual body, I do all the moves. Spike, on the other hand, has better reflexes, a better sense of timing and the instincts for it, so for the most part; he controls all my subconscious actions. Of course, we don't follow this method religiously, such as just now, he takes over when I'm distracted, or doubting myself, but he still leaves me in partial control, even in that instance, because I'm more used to being able to walk on two feet, and I'm more used to being sentient, so I can think more on my feet, rather than following my primal instincts. We are working in perfect union...

_'Perfect...? Hah!'_

Ok, semi-perfect, since we're both extremely stubborn, and when we disagree it leads to both of us trying to force the other to our will. It's sad, when you and your pet start arguing. I thrust my gunblade at the house, firing several rounds at the same time. The thing inside roars. I make my way to Cloud, for there is always strength in numbers, and together, I don't doubt we'll beat this thing... whatever it is.

You know, fate has a real sick sense of humor. The roof just flew in the air and a rocket flew out of the house and towards us. Cloud and I shot each other a wide-eyed look before leaping in opposite directions, preying that the blast radius wasn't large enough to kill us. I landed with a grunt and a roll, before the rocket landed where we had been previously. Neither of us were caught in the main blast, but we were still affected by the aftershock, sweeping us off our feet and through the air for several meters before landing. Trust me to land inside a broken crane. Unfortunately, the padding for the seat had been striped, leaving a hard plastic lump that hurt my back when I landed on it. Groaning, I looked out the door and spotted Cloud lying on a pipe, quite unconscious. Oh crap. What a weakling. Ex-Soldier? Not impressed, I pulled myself out of the crane, finally pulling my coat from its knot around my waist. The potion had dried from my jeans a while ago, thankfully. I slipped the coat on. Around my waist, it had been getting in the way, now my waist didn't have a bundle of leather tied in a very tight knot around it.

Talon was lying halfway between me and the house. I felt something in the back of my mind, something I hadn't felt since my fight against Jade. I ignored it, trying to think of a way to get to my weapon without being bombed to holy hell.

_'You have a Limit Break ready.'_

_I know, I know! But I can't do much about it without my gunblade!_

That was the feeling. After several seconds, Cloud came flying out of nowhere, screaming like a banshee. Sounded like one too. Aeris had obviously taken the time to revive him. I watched in interest as Cloud started furiously hacking at the house, he didn't have any of the finesse that came naturally with a Limit, which meant that he was just pissed off at being taken out so easily. Deciding that Cloud was offering plenty of distraction to pass an army without being noticed, I decided to go grab my gunblade and then aid him, but something crawled in my path. It looked a lot like a scorpion, but rounder... if that makes sense. Then another 3 more decided to join the first. Now, these I **do** remember. They weren't hard, but they swarmed you in large numbers. And, oh... how convenient... I just so happen to not have Talon, so I am weaponless. Wait, no I'm not. I bought that combat knife, didn't I?

Smirking at the scorpion wannabes, I pulled the knife from its sheath and held it in a reversed grip (where the blade itself sticks out under your fist) in my left hand, my right fist just behind it, no idea why, I just copy the wonderful stance of Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3. I think it was something like this. The scorpions weren't patient with me, and instead of letting me experiment my stance with the knife, one of them leapt at me. Spike's reflexes coming into play, I spun out of the way, slicing the thing as it flew past. I looked at the rest of the swarm and my jaw dropped. More were coming out. There were at least eight of them so far, more coming. My life has got to be a joke among whatever Gods exist. To make matters worse, Cloud and Aeris were moving away, the house, now with some kind of creature actually sticking out of the roof, windows and whatever other opening there was. Were those rocket boosters? Either way, Cloud and Aeris were being driven away from me, so they couldn't help.

_Sometimes I think Jethro has a point when he moans about life being unfair. This is one of those times. He had been seperated from the others, so these scorpion things were coming out to take out the weak prey. We aren't weak, but it must have seemed that way to these things when we were caught by the missile. My owner was being calm about the situation however, something I was grateful for. He was trying to think of a way to get to our weapon. So was I, but I wasn't having much luck._

I swung the knife at more and more of the scorpions, killing them as quickly as they came. I was restricted to the knife, however. I'm not sure if the sting on these things are deadly, but I don't want to find out, so I can't tail whip groups of them at a time. I have an idea, but if I mess up, I'm easy picking for these little blighters. After slicing the tail off one of the scorpions, I leapt towards the crane, grabbing and swinging up to the actual crane thing. I'd noticed that the end of it was perched on a ledge, which was quite high. Using my tail for balance, I ran the length of it and hopped onto the safety of the high ground. I sneered down at the little insects; ignoring the disapproval from the lizard-within. This ledge ran quite a ways. Far enough for me to get to my gunblade. I regained my breath for a second, before checking on the critters.

Holy crap. In that short time, they'd managed to increase their numbers to the point that the floor was covered with them. Even if I get Talon back, I'd be killed in seconds with this many. Ok, new plan, grab the weapon, then... Run. Like. Fuck.

I quickly sheathed the knife before getting into position. I only had one chance at this. Fail, I'm most likely dead. Joy. Taking a deep breath, I jumped. I landed next to my weapon, which I scooped up, but the moment I'd landed, the scorpions were already flooding towards me. I ran towards the house, which was still locked in combat with Cloud and Aeris. I slid under the house, which had grown legs (don't ask) and leapt to my feet once the other side. My companions looked a little surprised at my sudden appearance, but I didn't stop for pleasantries. I just ran past them.

"RUN!" I yelled.

It took two seconds for them to see the flood of scorpions running this way and start fleeing themselves. Looking back, I noticed that even the house was running away. Didn't cause any to follow it though, it was like I was their sole reason for living. If they were this determined, was this going to ruin the whole park scene? Or was it going to a case that we run right into Sector 7 and have everyone run like headless chickens as the scorpions flooded town. I hope not, I don't want to be held responsible for destroying a town.

"Keep running!" Aeris ordered us.

No shit. What have I been doing for 2 minutes now?

"There should be a checkpoint up ahead that'll stop them from following!" Ok, that I wanted to hear. Wait... should? "But its been so long it may no longer work!"

...Bitch. You just made my day. Wait, is that the park I see? It is. I sprinted even faster. When I got there I fell over. Turning, I watched my doom come, and stop suddenly, screeching. Aeris laughed gleefully. I don't understand exactly, but I'm glad they stopped.

"The scent is still here! Yes!" Aeris laughed.

Scent? Huh? Cloud looked at my confused expression and grinned.

"Pheromones. Towns and cities usually use pheromones to drive away the smaller monsters, like those things. It doesn't work on the larger monsters, but the bigger ones are normally intelligent enough to know to stay away from large gatherings of humans."

Ah, that explains it. No wonder monsters never enter any towns. I picked myself up, smiling. I have never been so scared in my life, well, there was the incident earlier, which I'm still confused about, and will need to ask Jade about it sometime.

"The gate to Sector 7's in there." The flower girl said, jerking a thumb at a huge steel door.

"Thanks. I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be all right going home?" Cloud replied, looking a little downcast.

"Oh no! What ever will I do? ...isn't that what you want me to say? Take me to Sector 7? I could do that. But won't I be in your way?" Aeris giggled.

"What do you mean in the way?" Cloud asked, confused.

"She's joking." I mumbled, looking at the giant doors, trying to figure out how to open them.

Aeris nodded. "Right. Can we take a break?" At Cloud's nod she faced the park. "I can't believe its still here."

I turned and watched her run up to a slide shaped like a Moogle head. She looked like she was remembering old memories. I decided to leave her be rather than ask about the fact she **only** just noticed it. She climbed to the top of the slide and sat down.

"Cloud, over here!"

Cloud climbed up and sat next to her. They looked at peace, something I hadn't seen in Cloud in all the time I've known him. Normally I'm a Cloud/Tifa fan, but I couldn't deny that they looked like they were meant to be together there. I felt out of place, but didn't let it get to me.

"What rank were you?" The Ancient asked suddenly.

Cloud looked confused for a second, not expecting the question.

"Rank?"

"You know, in SOLDIER."

"Oh, I was..." Cloud hesitated for a little bit, and I watched, interested, as his Mako blue eyes flashed purple for a brief second. "First Class."

"Just the same as him." Aeris sighed, eyes clouded over in memory.

"The same as who?" The mercenary asked, interested.

"My first boyfriend." The flower girl smiled briefly at the memory.

"You were... serious?" Ooh, is that a hint of jealousy I detect there Cloud?

"No." Aeris said quickly, shaking her head. "But I liked him for a while."

Looking at Cloud's face, when she said that, he changed slightly, looking like somebody else. He had a brief like of sadness before his features changed to normal.

"I probably knew him. What was his name?" He asked, kindly.

Aeris sighed. "It doesn't really matter."

The large door behind me opened, and I saw a giant yellow bird, pulling a cart behind it come through. I quickly stepped out of the way of the chocobo, not too intent on the idea of being crushed. As the cart turned to go down another road, I saw the occupant of the cart. Tifa! She was wearing a dress similar to the one worn by Rinoa in Final Fantasy 8, but ocean blue instead. She noticed me and shot a small smile before closing her eyes. Perhaps she thought she imagined me?

"Huh? Hey, back there... Tifa?" And Cloud has just noticed Tifa as well. Both he and Aeris were looking at where the cart had disappeared.

The ancient raised an eyebrow. "That girl in the cart was Tifa?"

"Yea." I replied.

"Where was she going? She looked kind of odd..."

Without waiting for an answer, she hopped off the slide and ran to the road that the cart had gone down. After standing there for a couple of seconds, she took off, following the cart.

"Wait! I'll go on alone! You go on home!" Cloud yelled out, jumping off the slide.

He shot me a quick glance, silently asking me to come with him. I nodded but then my PHS started ringing. Cloud looked amused at my ringtone. My ringtone was the J.E.N.O.V.A. remix from the Black Mages Album.

"I didn't think you were the type who liked The Black Mages." He said at my questioning look.

More Earth influence, brought about by the evil PS2 no doubt. I slid the mobile from my pocket and flicked it open. The picture of Jade was showing on the screen, along with a flashing '**accept call?**'

"Informant?" Cloud asked.

I nodded. I noted Cloud's lack of following Aeris. Maybe he wanted to know just what Jade had to say. I pushed the button to accept the call and put it to my ear.

"Hello Jade." I murmured.

**"Hello to you to, Jethro."** She greeted in a cheery voice. Can PS2s get hyper on sugar, because she sounds like she has.

"What do you want?"

**"Can't I just want to speak to my favorite bi-pedal lizard boy?"**

"Not really. And since when are **you** this... cheery?"

**"No complaining." **There, that sounded more like the normal Jade. **"I just want to tell you that you can forget about going to Wall Market."**

I grunted, letting her know to continue.

**"Mainly, because you'd never be able to fool to Don's men, so you'll be useless when the time comes. Secondly, you may have a chance at changing some aspects of the original plot. You may help Biggs, Wedge and Jesse survive. I don't care whether or not you do, but you may as well try make a difference while you're there. It'd be the only way to be useful, especially since you only have half an hour before the Shinra attack party comes."**

"Shit." Man, how did Barret survive in the game? In reality, it'll take much longer than that for Cloud and Aeris to get Tifa and return. Joy to the world.

"Got it."

I ended the call, and turned to Cloud, who was looking at me expectantly.

"Shinra are going to attack Sector 7. Today, at least half an hour from now."

Cloud's response was the same as mine to Jade. "Shit."

I nodded understandingly. "I'm going to Sector 7 to warn AVALANCHE. You go to Wall Market and get Tifa."

Cloud grunted his agreement with the plan. He turned and sprinted down the road after Aeris. I turned and hit the button on the wall next to the door. After a minute, the doors opened. I walked through them, into Sector 7. This would be interesting, since in the game you never got to do much for defending Sector 7. Just a race to the top of the pillar and back down again as the plate falls.

_'Interesting ain't the word for it.'_


	8. Clash on the Pillar

Chapter 8: Clash on the Pillar

I stepped through the large metal doors, ignoring the exclamations of surprise from the two guards. I had 30 minutes to find Barret and warn him of his impending need to defend the Sector Seven pillar. I glared at one of the guards, when he ordered me to stop and continued on. Ah, target located, 7th Heaven. I quickened my pace; every second I stood around, Shinra was approaching. I all but kicked the doors of the bar open, glaring at all the shocked patrons.

"Closing time!" I hissed; red eyes narrowed.

At a sound of protest, I pulled out my gunblade and fired it at the ceiling, repeatedly. I have a feeling that the effect was ruined when a load of crap fell on me. Just my luck. I still convinced a majority of the patrons that it was indeed closing time, but a couple continued to just sit there, giving me a look. Looks like I'll have to do this the fun way.

I advanced towards the pair, who stood up and readied themselves for a fight. I sheathed my blade; I don't want to kill them, after all. One of them charged towards me, trying to do some kind of fancy kick. I just grabbed his foot and twisted, earning a squeal of pain, before I threw him into one of the tables. The table collapsed under his weight, leaving a battered drunk, with a twisted ankle, lying in the debris of a destroyed table. I smirked and threw a punch at the other, who just stared, gob-smacked. He staggered back before falling over.

"Very good, Spike. Now, if you don't mind **not** wrecking the rest of the pub." A familiar voice said.

I turned and spotted Barret skulking around in the corner. I shot a smirk at him as he straightened himself.

"How're **you** alive?" He asked, walking towards the pinball machine.

"Hell if I know… Does barely count as an answer? To get here I have gone falling off the plate, pulled around by my tail, beaten up by a house and chased by a flood of scorpions. I'm barely alive now, and I have a life or death message for AVALANCHE." I snapped, the events of the past few hours coming back to me in a rush. I decided not to tell the Mr T wannabe about my trip towards the light.

"Sounds like fun." He smirked, eyebrow quirked. "Life or death 'ay?

"Yes, life or death. Shinra know we're here and are going to attack. We have little time to prepare."

Barret looked at me sharply.

"How does that damn Shinra know where we are?" He demanded, accusation clear in his voice.

I held out my hands in a non-threatening gesture, trying to pacify him.

"No idea. Why don't you ask them?" He continued to glare at me, a fire burning within his eyes. "Look, if **I **was responsible, do you honestly believe I'd tell you that they know, so that you know that they know?"

Barret looked dizzy for a minute, guess that sentence was said a little too fast for him, but then he stormed over to the pinball machine and started banging on it, hard. The machine lowered, without the big burly man, and raised itself with the three stooges. Biggs took one look at me and screamed.

"IT'S A GHOST!"

I raised and eyebrow ridge as Biggs leapt into Wedge's arms in a similar fashion to Scooby and Shaggy; except Wedge dropped his friend to the floor in an undignified heap with an odd sound that was like a cross between a 'meep' and an 'ack'. Jessie just gave me a penetrating look, before grinning.

"You survived. I heard rumors but didn't believe them." She said.

"Stories of my death were greatly exaggerated. Who did you hear these rumors from?"

Ok, this is a small bit of curiosity, since in all RPGs, rumors about you have a tendency to get to every town/city in the game seconds after you perform the deed.

"A little girl in the street was telling me a rumor she heard, and then a friend came in from sector 5 a while ago."

Jade? Couldn't be, could it? I shrugged mentally and stepped back.

"Shinra is coming. They know we're based in Sector 7."

The 3 stooges gave mixed reactions. Jessie suddenly looked worried, Biggs swore loudly (I don't think I've ever heard **that** one before) and Wedge just paled slightly. Barret thumped his gun-arm on the bar, which made us all jump and snap to attention, sorta.

"Listen up foo's. If the Shinra is comin', we need to prepare a defence!" Wow, he sounds like a military general. "Wedge, set up a place where that sniper rifle of yer's is gonna do some good. Possibly the top o' the pillar. Jessie, you an' Biggs are to defend base. Spike… you're with me."

Oh joy, I'm paired off with Mr T. I wonder what our job is.

"We're going to defend the pillar. Shinra has no regard for human life so their most likely target is the top of the pillar."

There you go, I'm standing around on top of a great big pillar, where I'm going to fight tooth and nail for the safety of a whole eight of the city.

_'And how do we fight any helicopters? I hate to break it to you, but you hardly have the greatest of anti-aircraft weaponry.'_

Erm... Yeah, good point actually. "How do we take out any aircraft? I doubt they'll just march up single file, despite how great a strategy it is." Great for **us** at least.

"How in the hell is that an effective strategy, foo?" Can you guess who asked that?

"Well, you file up the men in single file, in order of least important to most important, where they charge at the enemy screaming loudly, causing fear and confusion. The most important man analyses the situation from the back, and if the situation is going badly, he can order a retreat."

Wedge frowned softly. "How will he know the situation is going badly?"

"When he's the last one left, he'll know that everything is going badly and issue the retreat."

_'That has got to be the lousiest plan I've ever heard.'_

_Thank you for your input Spike. I never said I'd willingly take part in it._

_'Thank the Great Lizard, seeing as I want to live long enough to see my children born.'_

_The Great Lizard? Lizards have a religious entity they worship? Strange... And who says you'll be able to bear children? Near as either of us knows, you'll never find a mate...wife...whatever the term is for you._

_'Masagla.'_

Masagla? Interesting word. Masagla. Kinda rolls off the tongue. But back to the issue at hand, Barret is giving me odd looks. Looking at the others, I see that they are too. I shrug, giving them a 'who, me?' kind of look. I know that the strategy mentioned wasn't all **that** great, but hey, it is a good strategy for the enemy, is it not? All the enemy troopers lined up, just waiting for a certain shot to take 'em all down in one.

"Anyway. Shinra helicopters are weak ass things that'll be destroyed if you shoot at them repeatedly." Barret said, swinging that gun-arm of his around.

_'That's it? That's his plan? 'Shoot it repeatedly until it goes boom'? I could think up a better plan in my sleep.'_

I voiced those opinions to Barret who growled at me, muttering something about young punks not respecting the plans of the experienced. I have to wonder, just what is his experience from? Toy helicopters?

"Anyway. Shouldn't we be moving to our positions?" Jessie interrupted. "Standing here talking about our plans isn't going to stop Shinra from attacking. This isn't a video game (_Oh if only you knew how false that was) _they aren't going to kindly wait for us to finish planning before the start attacking."

Barret and I looked properly abashed, and Spike had the cheek at snigger at me 'getting told' by someone I barely even know. Jessie just stormed out of the place, readying her weapon. Barret and I walked out of the bar, strolling almost casually. Once outside, I stared up at the pillar we were going to have to defend. Holy heck... the game does **not** do its size justice. And we were going to have to climb that thing to defend Sector 7? I'll be lucky not to faint from exhaustion. Biggs pushed past me, assault rifle slung over his shoulder and walked towards the weapon shop. I raised an eyebrow ridge, and looked towards Barret, wondering why he wasn't moving to defend the pillar as well.

Barret either didn't notice me or just ignored me and moving calmly towards the gate in the fence that surrounded the pillar. I followed, and was about to point out that it was pad-locked, when Barret lifted his gun arm and fired a single burst, shredding the pad-lock to buggery. He then proceeded to kick open the gate and started to move up the stairs. I moved aside, giving Wedge room to move past and start going up the steps as well. I hesitated, not liking the idea of going up there. I'm afraid of falling. That was how Wedge died wasn't it? Falling of the pillar? I'd rather not share that fate, thank you very much.

_'Scared?'_

_Oh yeah. The morons I've killed so far weren't prepared. This time, we are fighting against a lean, mean, fighting machine. Chances are, they aren't sending the moans in, but the next level up... groans, maybe?_

_'We can take 'em. If we can't, we may as well just say good-bye to our old lives.'_

Point taken. I'm still nervous. Taking a deep breath, I made my first step up the stairs.

_'One small step for mankind, one slow, fearful trudge for a human/lizard hybrid.'_

_Shut up. You aren't helping. _

After a second of blissful silence...

_'Would you like **me** to take control of your body? At least I don't seem to be afraid of heights.'_

_Again... Shut. Up. I can do this. I know I can._

I take several steps up the stairs, before my concentration is shattered by the sound of a gunshot. Spinning around, I spot a small group of Shinra troops moving towards me. Spike's reflexes coming into play, I slide Talon from its sheath quickly, and fired repeatedly at the soldiers. After about half of them fell, Biggs leapt out of an upper floor window of the weapon shot, firing full auto upon the poor sods. Not a one of them survived. Well, that was easy. If its like this the whole time, I see no reason why we won't survive and even manage to prevent the pizza slice from tumbling on top of us.

I stiffen as I feel a breeze blowing on me. Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but since when did a breeze get stronger and stronger, all the while creating a sound similar to that of, oh, a helicopter? Slowly, I turn around. There, flying behind me, was a Shinra soldier, and strapped to his uniform, was a trio of helicopter rotors.

The soldier smirked at me, flashing his yellow, rotten teeth. He swung a rotor attached to his right arm at me, and I hastily ducked down to avoid it. The rotor cut through the railing, like a hot knife through butter, or, in other words, effortlessly. He swung the rotor at me again, this time I blocked it with my gunblade. Well, that was reassuring, the rotors failed to slice through my weapon. Always a good sign. The Shinra soldier seemed to disagree, and swung a leg at my torso. I leapt back, releasing my hold on his rotor, which, might I add, he had been pushing against me with all his strength. The sudden lack of resistance sent him flying off to the side, giving me a clear shot his back. He shuddered once, when Talon sliced through his spine, then fell silent and fell, dead. Well, slightly more difficult then normal, but still no problem.

This time, instead of moving slowly up the stairs, I ran. Needed to be with a partner for the best effect in a battle. About halfway up, I encountered Barret firing like a madman at a small group of the heli-troopers. Deciding to aid him, I fired a few rounds at the soldiers, but their rotors seemed to make a pretty good shield, and they were using them to deflect all incoming bullets. Why can't life ever be easy? Would it be really be to much to ask that we manage to kill them all before they can get close enough to be a threat?

_'Seems so.'_

Yes, life just loves giving us poor saps a kick up the ass, and we can do nothing about it, it would seem. Once they were close enough, I attempted to skewer one of the closest heli-troops. He parried my thrust and attempted to slice me in two with his other rotor. I don't think Barret appreciated being ignored, because when the poor sod tried to kill me, he left himself open, and Barret capitalized on that opened and fired a long burst a point blank range into the soldier's face. I don't think there was anything left to call a head in the end.

The rest of them backed up slightly, and then one of them gave a gurgled cry of pain and dropped out of the sky. All present, me and Barret included, stared down, confused. When yet another one dropped dead, I was starting to wonder what was going on, at the 3rd, the heli-troopers started to scatter, nervous. Barret grinned, calling up the stairs.

"Good work, Wedge."

So it was Wedge. Wow, he's a good shot, and he must have a silencer or something, because I didn't hear a thing. Barret turned to me, serious.

"I'm going to the very top, with Wedge. You stay around the middle section of the pillar, and take out any foot troops that get past Biggs and Jesse, and as many of those annoying flies as you can." He ordered me.

I nodded, and watched as Barret ran up the stairs. Well, there went my plan to team up against any Shinra we come across. Shrugging, I made to move down a level, but bumped against a wall of flesh. Stepping back, I found a strange man with long brown hair and cold, steel eyes glaring at me.

"Who the hell are you?" I snapped.

_'Look at his clothes.'_

I took one look, and paled. Blue suit. A Turk, and not one I'm familiar with. I swung my gunblade at him, but he blocked the slash with a rod, similar to a certain red-head's weapon, before swinging his weapon around and hitting me on the leg.

"My name is unimportant. What is important is that you die." He muttered, before swinging his rod at me again.

I rolled out of the way of his attack and kicked him in the face, sending him staggering back slightly. I pulled myself to my feet and glared at the strange Turk.

"Ok, Unimportant. So that's the way you wanna play? Well, two can play at that game." I hissed, softly.

Unimportant's eyes widened slightly, probably weirded out by the hiss in my voice. I picked up Talon from where I had dropped it after being hit in the leg and stood, ready. The Turk readied himself, putting his rod in a defensive position. We stood, staring at each other, like in those old westerns, waiting for the other to move. Being the impatient git that I am, I didn't wait long, and charged, allowing Spike to do his usual part of keeping my subconscious reflexes top notch.

I swung Talon at the Turk, who blocked the blows repeatedly, his eyes scanning me for any weaknesses. I wasn't about to allow him to find any, and increased the speed of my attacks, rather then focus any strength into them. He was good though, I'll give him that. So far, I have been unable to get a single attack through his defences. He grit his teeth, trying to block every attack I threw at him, and succeeding at it, too. I switched tactics on him though, and, using both hands, put all my strength into an overhead cleave. He blocked it, holding it at bay, struggling to do so, but that was my intention. With all his attention focused on our grid-locked weapons, he never saw my foot coming until after I had kicked him in the face. The man staggered backwards, but managed to regain his composure in time to block my next slash.

The Turk now realized how little was getting done, being on the defensive, and charged at me. I'll admit, I was taken by surprise, and obviously, so was Spike. The idiot rammed into me, and we both went flying over the railing and plummeted to the ground below. I landed on something soft, fortunately enough. The Turk was not so lucky, landing on the hard ground, and having my land on him. He kicked me off, and jumped to his feet, looking very pissed off. He pulled a hip-flask from his jacket pocket and took a large gulp.

"Drinking on the job?" I smirked.

He shook his head, and I watched as the cut on his face my kick had made healed itself right back up. Ok, he has a potion, or a hi-potion. I don't care which, the point is, he just healed himself. Groaning, I pulled out a potion of my own and gulped it down quickly, not willing to give him a chance to attack me unawares. Once I tossed the empty flask away, he charged at me again, swinging his baton at me. I jumped back and deflected the blow, before countering. He slid to the side, avoiding the blow, and stabbed out at me, rod sparking, I sidestepped the attack and fired a couple of rounds at him, which he avoided and countered by firing several small beams of light at me, which I ducked.

_I watched as we participated in a lethal dance. Yes, a dance, both fighters were using whatever speed and agility they had in order to actually try and hit the other, while at the same time, using those exact same attributes to avoid each other. Both were moving with grace, and no attack went near them, I doubt Jethro even noticed any of this, he was so intent on beating this new enemy. Not even their weapons came anywhere near touching each other._

_Of course, all things come to an end, and after the man in the blue suit caused Jethro to jam his weapon into the ground, he twisted around so that he was behind us, most likely to finish us off. I doubt he was expecting the tail whipping him in the face, sending him stumbling back._

Thanks.

'No problem.'

I turned around, spotting the Turk rubbing a nasty looking welt that had formed on his cheek.

"Not having much luck today, are you?" I asked him, cheekily.

He growled, before looking a his watch. He then did the typical Turk thing to do, and turned and made a break for it. Yeah, you run, ya little coward. I could have you any time of the day, and still ask for seconds. I turned around and almost walked right into Jesse, who was staring at me.

"What? I have something on my face?" I asked.

Jesse shook her head slowly, before taking a deep breath.

"You do realize you just fought off a Turk, don't you?"

"Er, yes. Unless the Turks don't wear blue suits anymore, and he just happened to be wearing an old uniform."

She shook her head again.

"But you just fought off a Shinra Elite. The Turks are meant o be better then Even SOLDIER, bested only by Sephiroth and his 2IC." Biggs claimed, slapping me on the back.

"I have a feeling that he was a rookie." I murmured.

I have a feeling that he was, since I'd have expected a veteran Turk to be quite a bit harder. I mean, in the game, the first fight with Reno required all 3 party members to be involved. Or, I got lucky. I personally prefer the idea that it was a rookie I beat the snot out of

_'You got lucky, and it was a rookie at the same time.'_

Jeez. Such support from my faithful companion, who happens to reside in my mind. I'm schizophrenic, with voices in my mind like this. I only hope that when we get summon materia, they don't decide to talk to us, I'd go mad.

_'You are mad. And getting off topic.'_

_Thanks. You're a real pal._

Anyway, I looked up, and spotted a helicopter hovering around, and a distant sound of Barret's gun-arm. Well, at least he's alright. I turn back to face the two AVALANCHE members and jump in surprise at Cloud's ugly mug.

"What's this I hear about Turks?" He asked me.

"I just chased off a Turk, whose name is Unimportant." I informed him.

He raised an eyebrow, examining me.

"Right. It was probably a rookie, and you got lucky.

_'Told you.'_

"Oh, shut up."

_That goes for you too, wise-ass._

"It was still an impressive fight, Cloud." Biggs interrupted. "After the Turk threw them both off the pillar, their fight just went to a whole new level. It was like a dance, neither could hit the other, no matter how hard they tried. Both were so... so... agile."

"Biggs, as much as I appreciate the praise, don't we have more important things to worry about? Such as... oh, I don't know... **preventing the plate from crushing us like bugs?**"

"Good point..." He squeaked.

I looked up at the top of the pillar again, making a special note to gloat to Barret about how crap his 'shoot any helicopters in sight to buggery' plan was. I then looked at Biggs and Jesse again.

"I have a bad feeling about this. You two get out of the Sector. If anything happens, at least one of you has to survive for AVALANCHE to continue. I'll tell Wedge to retreat as well."

"Spike!" Tifa spoke up, from her spot next to Aeris.

"No, Tifa, think about it. I just fought of a single Turk, who was most likely a rookie, and yes, chances were, I got lucky. Now, if I just fought off the rookie... where are the veterans?" I hissed.

She went silent at that, possibly mulling over what I had said. Cloud nodded, barely noticeably.

"He has a point. They wouldn't send a lone rookie without at least one of the experienced members being close by to give them a hand. And the veterans, as Spike said a while back, surpass SOLDIER, beaten only by Sephiroth, before he died." Cloud pointed out. "I may be confident in my abilities, but even I have to admit that even working together against a lone veteran, we still may not survive."

"Which is why it would be a good idea for you two to get away. If you survive, then you can just rebuild AVANCHE, but if we all go down, then who will there be left in the fight against Shinra."

Biggs hesitated for a second before nodding.

"Right. Hopefully I'll see you again someday." Biggs said, holding out his hand, which I grasped firmly. "Try not to die."

"You too." I replied.

Both he and Jesse said their final farewells to Cloud and Tifa before retreating. I watched them go, before focusing my attention upwards again. My eyes widened and I jumped back, avoiding Wedge's body. I rolled him onto his back and took a look at him. I might not be an expert, but I could tell that he was too badly injured for any of our potions to take affect. Cloud moved over to the fallen AVALANCHE member.

"Wedge, are you alright?"

Wedge chuckled weakly, looking at the ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary.

"...Cloud... you remembered my name..." It was obviously taking a lot of energy for Wedge to speak, and blood started to dribble from his mouth. "Barret's up top. ...Help him... an'... Cloud... Sorry, I wasn't any help."

Wedge's eyes rolled back into his head, and when I checked him for a pulse, there was none. I shook my head, guiltily. I should have been able to save him, instead, I got dragged into a fight with Unimportant, and that cost Wedge his life. I looked up. Cloud was glaring up at the Shinra helicopter that was buzzing around at the top of the pillar.

"I'm going up." He declared, resting his hand on the hilt of his Buster Sword.

Tifa turned to Aeris; worry clear as daylight in her eyes.

"Aeris, do me a favor. I have a bar called the '7th Heaven' in this neighborhood. There's a little girl named Marlene there..."

Aeris interrupted Tifa with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I'll put her somewhere safe."

Tifa sighed in relief before turning to face the local population. "It's dangerous here! Everyone get away from the pillar, quickly! Everyone get out of Sector 7!"

I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and turned to face Cloud. He handed me a Materia orb.

"Restore Materia. You can never have enough people in a battle with healing capabilities." He explained when I accepted it.

I nodded gratefully, and pushed it into an empty Materia slot on Talon.

Once everybody was prepared, we stepped though the gate and started our long climb to the top. Any and all resistance was cut down immediately. When we reached the top, Barret was firing at the helicopter that was buzzing around. He spotted us and waved us over to him.

"Tifa! Cloud! Spike! You came! Be careful, they're attacking from the helicopter."

"What happened to 'if you shoot 'em enough, they explode'?" I asked, and received a foul look from Barret in return.

"Look out! Here it comes!" Tifa warned us, and the chopper came, firing machine guns at us.

We all ducked for cover, and watched as a man in a blue suit leapt out, and landed on his feet. The red-headed man ran to a computer terminal and started typing furiously into the keypad. Being the closest one to him, I charged at him, Talon raised high. He finished just before I got to him and spun around, kicking me in the face. Notice how all these non-weapon attacks wind up hitting everyone in the face? This is getting annoying.

"You're too late, yo." He smirked, looking at us all in turn. "Once I push this button..." Without even looking, he smacked his palm again the big red button. Why is it always a big red button? Wouldn't it be disguised more as a small blue button? "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished, yo."

"And what's to stop us from killing you and then disarming the bomb?" I asked.

Reno looked at me properly for the first time and grinned.

"Ah, you're the one that attacked Cel. That speaks wonders for your skills, yo. He may be a rookie, but he is skilled."

"Yea, and there are more of us this time around, so we'll easily be able to beat you." I replied.

"Cocky. Bring it on, yo."

Cloud and I rushed him at the same time, swinging our blades. Reno dodged our joint-attack and did a flip over Cloud, hitting him with his rod. The blond swordsman staggered back, before bringing his massive sword towards Reno again, who blocked with his rod and head-butted him. I fired several rounds at Reno, who staggered back, but didn't appear any worse then before. Maybe he has a barrier up or something. Shrugging, I ducked under Reno's rod and punched him in the chest a couple of times before he leapt back and shot something out of his rod at me. I found myself locked inside a small, see-through pyramid, and watched as Tifa unleashed a small combo in Reno before retreated out of range of his physical attacks. Barret yelled some profanities and released a big-shot at Reno, who staggered back, injured.

"Hey, let me out of here!" I yelled, and Cloud, upon noticing my dilemma, slashed at the pyramid.

Free from the confinement of the pyramid, and ready to kick some ass, I charged at Reno and managed to slash his arm. He let out a strangled cry of pain before jamming his rod into my stomach and releasing a torment of electricity. The power surged through my body, sparks flying off me, before I flew back. I landed painfully against the railing, and the small of my back groaned in protest at the harsh treatment it was going through. I forced myself to stand up, and looked up. My eyes widened at the sight of a smirking Reno charging at me. I moved to defend myself, but after the electricity had surged through my body, my movement was sluggish. Reno's rod connected with my chin in an uppercut that threw me over the railing.

I didn't fall though; I grabbed the railing on the level below me. My arm really protested, but I was alive. I pulled myself to safety and glared upwards. I heard a snigger and then saw Reno falling off the pillar himself, yelling.

"Live and let live, yo!"

I looked down, but saw no trace of the red-head. I quickly ran up to the top level again and found Tifa taping random buttons on the terminal.

"I don't know how to stop this! Cloud, you try it." She shouted.

Cloud rushed over to the terminal and took a look before concluding.: "It's not a normal time bomb."

Shaking my head, I scooped up Talon and sheathed it. I turned my head to the side and watched as a helicopter raised itself. Riding it was another guy in a blue suit. Tseng.

"That's right. You'll have the hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it." He gloated.

Tifa looked shaken, as she tried to reason with the Turk, who shook his head.

"Ha ha ha… …Only a Shinra Executive can set up or disarm the Emergency Plate Release System."

Barret swore loudly, pointing his gun-arm at Tseng. "Shut yer hole!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tseng warned Barret, before he could open fire. "I wouldn't try that…… You just might make me injure our special guest."

Barret looked confused before he spotted Aeris slumped over on the seat next to Tseng.

"Aeris!" Tifa called out.

"Oh, you know each other? How nice you could see each other one last time. You should thank me."

"What are you going to do with Aeris!" Cloud yelled out, anger in his voice.

"I haven't decided. Our orders were to find and catch the last remaining Ancient. It's taken us a long time, but now I can finally report this to the President."

Aeris looked up at Tifa and smiled reassuringly. "Tifa, don't worry, she's alright."

Tseng frowned, slapping the Ancient.

"Aeris!" Tifa called.

"Tseng, you son of a bitch! You let her go!" I shouted at the Turk, who jumped slightly before looking at me, eyebrows raised.

"So... you're the lizard-man that happens to be the current gossip of the year. Hojo would love to get his hands on you, but I'm afraid that our primary concern is the Ancient."

"Look, just hurry and get out!" Aeris shouted.

Tseng just laughed at that. "Well, it should be starting right about now. Think you can escape in time?"

The helicopter rose up some and flew away from Sector 7. I watched as a support strut exploded, in an impressive display of fire and lights. All around us, everything started to collapse. Barret looked at a length of wire that had come lose from the ceiling above.

"Hey, we can use this wire to get out!" He yelled out.

We all moved over to him. Thinking quickly, Barret tucked Tifa under one arm, while motioning for Cloud and me to get on his shoulders. We both climbed up his back and took a shoulder each, both of us making certain to hold on tight.

Barret leapt off the pillar, swinging on the wire in the same way Tarzan does. I watched as the scenery passed by in a blur, the sounds all around were deafening. I looked forwards and watched as the heavy metal door I'd entered from came ever closer. Barret let go of the wire as it reached its limit and we all went flying. The last thing I remember from this chapter of my life is the world going black.


	9. And thus

Chapter 9: And thus...

**The child plodded towards his best friend, already bored from the lack of activities. He could barely read, so the books that made this place famous were out of the question... especially since they were very grown up books. Sighing, the young non-human wondered why he had decided to come here with his uncle. The sight of his best friend, staring into the fire reminded him of the reasoning. Coming here was the only time he got to see any of his friends.**

**The boy moved next to the large red animal and sat down. He creature turned to look at the new arrival and smiled softly at the lizard-boy who risked severe boredom all the time, just to come and visit him.**

"**You decided to come again." It was a statement of fact, not a question.**

"**Yup. You can always count on me to come every chance I get. I'm dependable like that."**

"**So you are."**

**The red creature looked back into the flames, frowning. Today was the anniversary of that fateful day, so long ago.**

"**You thinking about your dad again, ain't you?" The lizard-boy asked, interrupting his musing.**

"**You know me too well. Yes, today marks the day that he abandoned all, in his cowardice."**

"**Least you knew your dad. I was found remember? Why? Why was I left in the middle of nowhere? Is it because of what I am? Am I that much of a frea..."**

"**What you are, is a very good person, who I'm honoured to call my friend." The creature uninterrupted him, before frowning. "Who's been calling you a freak?"**

**The lizard-boy pointed over towards a large group of boys, who were playing a game of some sort.**

"**Ignore them. They don't know what they're talking about. They've actually said worse things to me."**

**The boy shrugged, staring glumly into the flame. The world darkened, but nobody seemed to notice.**

**

* * *

**

_'Welcome back to the world of the living.'_

I groaned, putting a hand to my head, as the events from earlier came rushing back to memory. And that dream... was that a dream? Most of it had already faded from my memory, but I remembered the gist of it. What did it mean?

_'That you're taking a dream you had when you were unconscious far too seriously? I have dreams all the time... **they** don't mean anything.'_

Maybe Spike has a point; maybe I am taking this too seriously. But something told me that I shouldn't just disregard it like that. Uh, maybe Spike's right, maybe I am crazy. Sighing, I looked at my surroundings. We were in the park again, only now there was rubble from the destruction of Sector 7 lying around; a few girders had wedged themselves into the same slide that Cloud and Aeris had sat on. Tifa was casting cure on herself, while Barret picked himself up, off the ground, looking a little dazed. Cloud was standing to the side, deep in thought.

I look towards the large doors that had led to Sector 7 and sigh as I noticed that it was completely blocked off by the remains of the plate. Barret turned and noticed the blocked doorway as well, and widened his eyes in shock. I faintly heard him mutter 'no', in disbelief. I took a step towards him, but his scream of anguish made me retreat a nice, safe five steps.

"Marlene! MARLENE! MAR---LE---NE!" Barret cried out, eyes wide, punching the debris. "Biggs! Wedge! Jesse!" Is he crying? Ok, that was one of the last things I'd have expected from Barret, but then again, I'd probably be the same in his position. "Dammit! Goddammit! DAMMIT ALL TO HELL! What the hell's it all for? ARGHHHH!"

Cloud chose now to step in. "Hey, Barret!"

As did Tifa. "Barret!"

As would I have done, had I known that it's better to let some things run their course. He believes he lost his daughter and three of his friends. While I know two of those friends and his daughter are safe, I really doubt that he's going to be able to listen properly, not until he's let out all that pent up energy. And this is me talking from how I would be in the same situation. Barret continued his screaming.

"Hey!" That was Cloud trying again.

"Barret, stop… Please stop, Barret." And Tifa again.

"Just let him be." I say, taking advantage of Barret gasping for air. "That's exactly how I'd react, and I wouldn't listen to reason until I've released all that negative energy."

Anything else I'd have said would have undoubtedly been drowned out by Barret screaming again, this time firing his gun-arm at the debris. I sat down, waiting for a nice round of silence, that'll come… Eventually.

It wasn't that long before Barret finally seemed to just give up. He finally stopped screaming, banged his head against the wall, and stayed there, sobbing. Tifa took a step towards Barret, cautiously. She hesitated a moment, before speaking.

"...Barret...? Marlene is... I think Marlene is safe." She told the big guy.

Barret looked at him, eyes bloodshot. He gave a confused 'huh,' prompting Tifa to continue.

"Right before they took Aeris, she said, 'Don't worry, she's all right.' She was probably talking about Marlene." Tifa concluded.

A small spark of hope seemed to light up in Barret's eyes, and he stood up straight, looking at the martial artist.

"R...Really?" He obviously couldn't believe the good news. But then another thought hit him. "Biggs... Wedge... Jesse..."

"Wedge died, even before the pillar was destroyed." Cloud informed him

"But..." I interrupted. "I told Biggs and Jesse to get the hell out of Sector 7."

Barret gave me a look, one that demanded an explanation.

"Think about it, we escaped by a fluke. There just happened to be a wire that we could use to escape. If that hadn't been there, we would be dead. Assume that had happened, and I hadn't told Biggs and Jesse to get out of there. They'd be dead too. Now, what would be left of AVALANCHE? Nothing. Not a thing. Zip. Shinra would have truly won." I paused, and looked at Barret, continuing when I noticed realization dawning on him. "Now, the same thing, only they had left, there would be two members left, who could then go into hiding, hire more recruits, and eventually continue the resistance. So long as one of us remains, AVANCHE lives in a sense."

"And that way, no deaths will be in vain. Because there will still be a fight against Shinra." Barret concluded, grinning.

_'You really thought that through, didn't you?'_

_Yup._

Barret then started laughing, and ran up to me, grabbing me in a bone crushing bear hug. Oh god. I think he cracked my spine. Tifa, giggling doesn't help me. Jesus Christ, you save a couple of people and your reward is death by crushed spine.

"Can't... Breathe..." I gasped.

Still laughing, Barret dropped me and gave a loud whoop. Dear god, that guy needs to control himself, I'm not entirely certain that my spine is in one piece. After another minute of laughing, Barret finally calmed down, sobered by another thought that entered his mind.

"This is all screwed up! They destroyed an entire village just to get to us! They killed so many people..."

"And still failed to kill all but one of us." I wheezed out. "Overkill... but in vain."

"…are you saying it's our fault? Because AVALANCHE was here? Innocent people lost their lives because of us?" Tifa asked, looking horrified.

"No, Tifa! That ain't it! Hell no! It ain't us! It's the damn Shinra! It's never been nobody but the Shinra! They're evil and destroyin' our planet just to... build their power and line their own damn pockets with gold! If we don't get rid of them, they're gonna kill this planet! Our fight ain't never gonna be over until we get rid of them!"

"But it does show that the Shinra use bludgeons, but with the finesse of a scalpel." I muttered, drawing looks from both of the AVALANCHE veterans. "There were much more subtle ways they could have killed us, but they used the most deadly method, one that seemed to lack finesse of any kind. But... in the case we survived... who do you think will be getting the blame for the Pillar's destruction?"

"Us." Tifa realized. "They place the blame on us, and then do a 'rescue operation' to make themselves look the heroes."

"It was obviously well thought out. It was made so that in the event we survive, however slim that may be, we would look like proper terrorists, who are killing innocents for the hell of it, not just an anti-Shinra faction."

"FUCK!" Barret cursed, punching the wall.

Sighing, I turned towards Cloud, who had been very silent throughout this, and found him just staring at the ground.

"Yo, Cloud." Barret called out.

Cloud ignored the Mr T lookalike and walked off, in the direction of Sector 5.

"Yo! Where's he think he's goin'?"

"Aeris' home was that way." I muttered.

"Oh yeah, that girl. What's up with her?" Barret wondered.

"…I don't really know… But she's the one I left Marlene with." Tifa informed him.

"Damn! Marlene! Tifa. Spike. There ain't no turnin' back now."

"There's been no turning back since we decided to actually fight Shinra rather then just talk about it." I smirked.

Barret chuckled, gesturing us to follow him as he charged after Cloud. I'll admit, I don't like the idea of going through this place again, and can you blame me, last time, I was attacked by a freaking HOUSE. Oh, and chased by a swarm of scorpions. Thankfully, we has a more able fighting party, and if we meet another house, I still have that Limit Break waiting. It occurs to me that I should have used my Limit on one of the Turks. Well, we beat them in the end, so... meh. We didn't manage to beat the house, so I'll focus my best attacks on the house.

We caught up to Cloud easily enough, he was moving cautiously, which meant slowly, but safer. He probably felt the same way I did. Who wouldn't, a giant house actually standing up to you in a battle is pretty traumatizing. Barret and Tifa moved so that they were either side of Cloud.

"Cloud! Take me to Marlene!" Barret demanded, earning a nod from the spiky blond swordsman.

"You're going to help Aeris?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah… But before that, there's something I want to know."

"What's that?"

Cloud hesitated a second before answering. "…It's about the Ancients."

Cloud paused a moment, frowning, before giving a strangled gasp and dropping to his knees, looking like he has a migraine. Knowing, vaguely, how he felt, after my earlier trip through hell, I crouched down next to him.

"Hey, you alright?"

Cloud nodded, accepting the hand I held out for him. Grunting, I pulled him to his feet.

"Pull it together, man!" Barret ordered the mercenary.

Cloud winced at the big, black man shouting orders down his ear and nodded. He took a step forward, but stopped, immediately, eyes wide. Frowning, I followed his line of vision and gaped.

"Is that the same one?" I asked, hesitantly.

"I think so... that gash on the side was caused by me." Cloud grunted.

_'By The great Lizard... What the hell does it take to kill a **house?**'_

_Technically... we can't..._

Oh yes... The House is back. How... Oh dear God what do I say? We have to fight a freaking house! Last time it almost blew me up, and then fed me to the scorpions. Speaking of which, I hope they don't come again, being chased by a swarm of insects is embarrassing... unless its bees or wasps... then it is a perfectly normal thing to do. Anyone in my position would agree.

Little story about me here. I don't like bees or wasps. Fact. I used to be alright around them, so long as they weren't stinging me. Again, fact. Wanna know what happened? I woke up one night and found a bunch of wasps (or bees, I didn't check) all on my pillow, right next to my head. Damn near gave me a heart attack. I was lucky I wasn't stung. But anyway, back to the story...

Tifa and Barret stared at the house, briefly, before turning to look at me and Cloud.

"You two got into a fight with a house?" Tifa asked, skepticism dripping from the tone of her voice. "And lost... seeing as it is still standing.

"We may have been able to kill it, but Spike got himself chased by more scorpions then I cared to count." Cloud justified himself.

"Well excuse me for not fighting them. Unlike you, I didn't have a healer focusing her undying attention on me." I snapped, glaring at Cloud.

I think the house got bored of waiting, because before Cloud could respond, a missile landing between us, exploding... as most of them usually do. Whoops, Cloud seems to have landed on his head, oh deary me. Oh well, at least it shut him up.

In a fancy move, (one of the likes I'd never have been able to have done back home) involving a twisty flip, I slashed at the house, preying that the thing wouldn't squirt its ink at me. I think I got lucky, because the house made a very un-house-like sound and jerked backwards. I tensed up for a second, preparing to use my Limit, while Barret did his thing, which involves lots of bullets coming out of his arm, (you know what I mean) and Tifa cast thunder on it.

Oh, drat, Cloud isn't out cold, and did you know that he was a mouth that would make a sailor blush when he's given proper incentive. I grunted and charged at the house, thrusting my gunblade towards it. The weapon stabbed into the wall, causing whatever actually lived inside the house to growl. In pain, I hope. Then, my trigger finger started to push the trigger as fast as it could. I counted twenty shots before I stood back, the power that comes with a limit fading. I watched as the house opened up... I dunno how to describe it, it's when it's injured and goes into its second battle form. But then it just... fell apart and vanished into thin air.

Silence, except for the wind.

We're all looking at each other.

Only one thing to do...

…

…

...LETS GET JIGGY WITH IT!

I flipped my gunblade (Tidus style), caught it and swiftly slid it into my sheath. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cloud doing his sword spinning routine, and I'm sure Barret and Tifa were doing their normal victory poses. Damn, I think if someone were to walk in on us, he'd either see a bunch of complete nuts... or a cool looking group. Or both.

The victory dance over with. I turned around to look at my comrades properly, and widened my eyes in disbelief. This road does **not** like us. Without even bothering to warn my friends, I just turn tail and make a run for it. Every man for himself.

In case you haven't guessed, the god-damned scorpions are back.

Just for your benefit, we'll skip the whole being chased part... last time was more then enough.


	10. Fires of Hell

Chapter 10: Into the Fires of Hell

* * *

Panting, heavily, I watched as the scorpions from hell screeched, the pheromone defence preventing them from coming any further. I was painfully aware of Barret's glare, which was directed at me. I can't blame him, really. I didn't give much of a warning to the others, did I? I just turned tail and did a brave, brave, Sir Robyn. He did bravely turn tail and flee, did you know? But that's a tale for another time. If ever.

Cloud was standing between me and the big black guy, though he looked fairly uncertain about his position, something that I don't envy him for, since I wouldn't want to stand between Barret and someone he's annoyed at either. Oh, excuse us for a a minute, Barret just started yelling, and the words he happens to be shouting are to be censored. Sorry, no corrupting people with the nasty words. See you in a while.

* * *

Sector 5 looks pretty much the same as before, with only one major difference: the dusty atmosphere. Now that I think about it, the Road-of-Mass-Scorpions-Chasing-You was also very dusty.

_'It was the impact from Sector 7's destruction.'_

_Oh yeah, how?_

_'I don't know. It has something to do with the dirt on the ground, or the smaller bits off rubble.'_

I shrugged to myself. It's not important, so why worry about it? Barret stopped at a large overhead TV screen and gaped, listening to the news report. I pause and listen, nodding to myself. What was told to the public was exactly what I had said would be said. In other words, the Shinra was placing the blame on us, and were going to supposedly start a rescue operation. How the hell can people believe this crap? There was no way in hell anyone could have survived the Sector 7 plate falling on top of them. I don't give much of a chance for survival to those who were on top of the plate either. It is just impossible for this tale to be plausible. Ok, yes, there was the possibility that it was AVALANCHE who decided to do the home DIY project, that part is vaguely realistic, but the whole rescue operation part is just a load of shit.

Cloud listened to the big screen as well, snorting. I get the distinct impression that he agrees with me. Tifa seems to be pointedly ignoring it. Good idea, that. It means no hearing a load off hypocritical bull. I'm rambling, aren't I? Ok, pretend that long rant never happened.

Cloud continued to leer at the large screen, before turning and stomping towards Aeris' home. Both Tifa and Barret followed, quickly falling into line behind him. I stood my ground for a couple of seconds, seriously contemplating getting out my gunblade and shooting the TV. I decided not to, probably to the relief of the local citizens. I doubt they'd be too joyous if I destroyed their overhead cinema. I know I wouldn't.

Cloud led the way to the only home in the slums that has a garden, which anyone could have found if they'd put there minds to it. He paused, however, at the front door, seemingly uncertain whether or not to continue inside. Me, being the insensitive jerk I am, just shoved him through the door (which was unlocked, why are doors always unlocked in RPGs?) and followed him in, waving cheekily at Elmyra as I did. The elder woman raised an eyebrow at us, an eyebrow which promptly had a companion as the other one joined it at the sight of both Tifa and Barret walking in like they owned the place.

The real owner of the house sighed, looking strangely... not worried. This isn't a regular thing is it? Strange people just walking into ones home should not be routine. Although this does remind me of the time my little brother played The Sims, created a new family, bought them a home, and some stranger just walked in, made himself at home, before burning the place down. Whereas, when it was me, I just had about ten strangers walk in, make themselves at home, and end up hogging the TV. I made my Sim have many enemies that day. But back to the point at hand. Elmyra turned to Cloud and nodded.

"Cloud... wasn't it? It's about Aeris, isn't it?" She asked, though from the tone of her voice, she seemed to know what the answer was in advance.

Cloud bowed his head, probably in shame. Shame on you Cloud.

"Sorry. The Shinra have her." He said.

Aeris' mum sighed, moving towards the kitchen.

"I know. They took her from here."

Cloud's head shot up in surprise, and both of the other members of AVALNCHE looked at Elmyra in shock.

"They were here?" I asked, the question obviously what was on every bodies minds.

"That's what Aeris wanted." She nodded, pulling several mugs from an overhead cupboard, and grabbing the kettle, which I hadn't realized was boiling.

"Why is Shinra after Aeris?" Tifa pondered aloud.

Again, Elmyra sighed, pouring the boiled water into the mugs. "Aeris is an Ancient. The sole survivor." She looked up at us, asking, silently, whether we wanted tea or coffee.

"Coffee, black, 3 lumps." I said, accepting the hot drink when offered, and sitting down on the sofa, waiting for her to elaborate.

"...What did you say? But, aren't you her mother?" Barret questioned, voice quieter then usual.

"Not her real mother." Elmyra countered, eyes getting a faraway look. "Oh... it must have been 15 years ago... During the war. My husband was sent to the front. Some far away place called Wutai."

"The Wutain War." Cloud mumbled, frowning.

"That's right. The war that got Shinra in the position of power that its in today. Shinra and Wutai were always evenly matched, until Shinra sent the new program into the war. SOLDIER."

"And leading the way was Sephiroth." Cloud murmured, this time his voice was so low, I wouldn't have heard it if I hadn't been sitting next to him.

"One day, I went to the station because I got a letter saying he was coming home on leave. My husband never came back."

I could honestly see the result of this. I watched this documentary once, about those widowed by wars. They always cling on to hope, coming back to the place where they were meant to meet, or places that were special between them. They knew the truth, but denied it until evidence says otherwise.

"I wondered if something had happened to him. No, I was sure his leave was just canceled. I went to the station everyday. Then, one day, I saw a woman laying, looking almost dead, her daughter beside her. You used to see this sort of thing a lot during the war. Her last words were, 'Please take Aeris somewhere safe.' My husband never came back. I had no child. I was probably lonely. So I decided to take her home with me.

"Aeris and I became close very quickly. That child loved to talk. She used to talk to me about everything. She told me she escaped from some kind of research laboratory somewhere. And that her mother had already returned to the planet, so she wasn't lonely…and many other things."

Barret frowned, those last words puzzling him.

"Returned to the planet?"

"I didn't know what she'd meant. I asked if she meant a star in the sky, but she said it was this planet… She was a mysterious child in many ways."

I would suppose so. If I were a kid, and I'd escaped from a research lab, I'd try to hide the reasoning.

"Then..." Elmyra continued. "Aeris just told me not to cry, right out of the blue. She continued on to tell me that someone dear to me had just died." Again, a sigh. "At that time I didn't believe her. But… Several days later… We received a notice saying my husband died… …and that's how it was. A lot had happened, but we were happy. Until one day…"

"Shinra?" I asked as she paused.

She nodded, mind still miles away.

"They just showed up. Of course I heard it. That she was an 'Ancient'. Aeris argued with Tseng, denying all his claims. But I knew. I knew about her mysterious powers… She tried so hard to hide it, so I acted as though I never noticed."

Cloud frowned, head bowed down in thought.

"It's amazing how she's avoided the Shinra for all these years…" He said.

"The Shinra needed her, so I guess they wouldn't harm her." Elmyra informed him, finishing her drink.

"But why now..." Tifa mused.

"She brought a little girl here with her. On the way here, Tseng found them. She probably couldn't get away fast enough. She decided to go to the Shinra in exchange for the little girl's safety."

"Must be Marlene." Cloud grunted.

Barret's face fell, at a brainstorm he had.

"Marlene!" Barret gasped. "Aeris was caught because of Marlene? I'm sorry. Marlene's my daughter. I'm …really…sorry…"

Elmyra's features darkened at what she heard and she glared at the Mr T wannabe.

"You're her father? How in the world could you ever leave a child alone like that?"

Barret looked at Elmyra, sighing. (What is it with people sighing here?)

"…Please don't start with that. I think about it all the time. What would happen to Marlene, if I… But you gotta understand somethin'…I don't got an answer. I wanna be with Marlene… But I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't…the planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'! But, I'm worried 'bout Marlene. I really just wanna be with her…always. See? I'm goin' in circles, now."

Barret has a soft side, who knew? Apparently his words touched Elmyra, who nodded, dark looks falling.

"…I think I understand what you're saying… She's upstairs asleep, why don't you go and see her."

Barret did that, quickly. I almost missed him as he ran up the stairs quicker then you could say 'daughter.' Cloud paused a moment, before following him up there.

"Why do you fight? For the sake of the planet, or something more?" Elmyra suddenly asked.

Tifa looked up at the question, but didn't answer, instead starting to do some deep thinking, if that frown is anything to go by. Why do I fight? So I can go home. But I can't tell her that.

"It's obvious that he doesn't fight just because he wants to protect the Planet," Elmyra continued, looking towards the stairs. "He's fighting to protect his daughter. He just doesn't realize it.

"You think so?" I asked, curious.

"It's obvious by the way he talks about how he worries about Marlene, even while fighting. I would bet that if anything were to happen to her, he would give up the will to fight. Possibly live."

The image of how Barret had been just after the destruction of Sector 7 can to mind. I might not have been around him for long, but I knew that that was not typical Barret behavior. He'd looked so helpless... But then when there was the possibility of Marlene being alive, it was like he was... I can't describe it, really. Words aren't exactly the best way of saying this.

I nodded, more to myself then anything. Elmyra smiled softly, glad that her point was made, I suppose. I turned at the sound of Cloud walking down the stairs. He looked determined, and had an aura about him that said that he was on a mission, and he would kick the ass of anyone who was foolish enough to get in his way... oh wait... that's the aura he always has. Well... it was just more obvious then usual then.

The spiky blond slammed the mug, that I hadn't realized that he was still holding, down on the tabletop, not breaking it, much to my amazement, and most likely Elmyra's relief. He glared at the front door, which I promptly noticed was still damaged from when I was clinging onto the frame for dear life, and he started towards it. Was he **trying** to look like a film star in some action flick? Rolling my eyes, I stepped up to him and 'accidentally' poured the rest of my coffee on his head. Luckily for him it had gone cold.

His hair now sagging, Cloud turned and glared at me, and thank you lord for making it so looks **couldn't** kill, else there wouldn't be anything left to identify me with. Tifa attempted to hide her giggle, emphasis on the attempted. I couldn't help but smirk at the swordsman; he looked rather amusing with the coffee dripping from his hair.

"Thanks..." He muttered, sarcastically.

"My pleasure." I answered, still smirking.

Cloud rolled his eyes, shaking his hair dry, like a dog would dry itself, getting some of the coffee on me. Once his hair was as normal as it could be, he gave me one last sour look, before making for the door again, this time not trying to look cool while at it. He was stopped, however, at Tifa speaking up.

"You're going after Aeris, right?"

Cloud hesitated a moment, before nodding. "Yeah."

"I'm coming with you." She claimed, tone of voice leaving no room for argument.

"We're going right to Shinra Headquarters… You gotta be prepared for the worst."

"I know. Right now, I feel I have to push myself to the limit. If I stayed here…I'll go crazy."

Cloud heaved a deep breath before nodding.

"Don't think you're leaving me behind. I'm coming along for the ride, whether you like it or not."

"Why?" Cloud questioned, though his voice betrayed the fact that he knew I was coming, whether he wanted it or not.

"Just because... Though if I want one of many specific reasons, then one is that I know that Aeris' fate could have just as easily been mine. You heard Tseng back there; Hojo would have loved to have gotten his grubby mitts on me. If I'm going to be discovered as still alive, which I will eventually, I want it to be because I let them know, I want to taunt them with the fact, not showing them that I'm now hiding from them."

_'You really love speaking out of your ass, don't you?'_

_Shut up. So what if it was stir of the moment, it was good, wasn't it?_

The lizard decided not to grace me with an answer. Lucky me. Cloud nodded, waving his hand in a 'come on then' manner, but didn't voice his thoughts on what I had just said. Must have made quite an impact, ey?

Barret chose that moment to come stomping down the stairs, thankfully not doing what Cloud did earlier, trying to look cool. He turned to Elmyra, looking nervous.

"Sorry, but can you take care of Marlene a bit longer?" He asked, sounding how he looked.

"Yes, I don't mind." Aeris' mother replied.

"This place is dangerous now. You better go somewhere else." Barret told her, turning towards us, all traces of nervousness gone.

"You're right. But promise me that you'll come back to her. Don't get yourself killed."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Claimed the leader of AVALANCHE.

Giving our various goodbyes, we left the house, feeling the biting chill in the air almost immediately. Most be nearing night. If it isn't already. It's kind of hard to tell, wheat with the great big plate hovering over our heads.

"How do we get to the Shinra building?" Tifa asked, once we could no longer see Aeris' home.

"There ain't no train that goes up there anymore…" Barret mused, aloud, realising our dilemma.

"What, the Sector 7 train station was the only train station in the slums?" I asked, eyebrow ridge raised.

"There was another one that was scheduled for building in Sector 3, but it was never finished." Cloud informed me, frowning.

"...Well, let's go to Wall Market. We might be able to find something there." Tifa said, optimistically.

"Better then nothing, I suppose." I muttered.

Now, with a destination in mind, we started to move with a purpose, towards the Wall Market, where, hopefully, we'll be finding a way to the top of the plate. Where we'll, you know, kick some Shinra ass, and take names. Only we won't, because the taking names part is just a pointless waste of time. We'll simply kick their ass, and spit on their lifeless, dead bodies.

We passed the giant TV again, and guess what folks, its **still** spouting out rubbish. Ok, despite what i said earlier, I unsheathed my gunblade and pointed it at the TV, squeezing the trigger. The TV shattered, glass raining down to the streets below. I stared dumbly up at where it used to be. How did that happen? I never actually fired. And since when does my gunblade make machine gun sounds... and still... is...

I turned and glared at Barret, who was **still** firing at where the overhead TV once sat, sadistic grin on his face. How dare he steal my satisfaction of destroying the propaganda spouting, load of crap? Finally holding his fire, he grinned at us, a grin which faltered when he noticed the three glares directed at him.

"What?" He asked, shrugging.

Cloud shook his head, muttering something, before continuing the trip to Sector 6. Me, Tifa, and Barret followed him, and I was only too aware of the foul looks sent at us by the citizens. Jeez, Barret, did you **have** to piss them off? Ignore the fact that I was about to do the same thing myself, but honestly, you've made us Sector 5 public enemy number 1. Taking a deep breath, I picked up the pace, jogging the rest of the way to the entrance to the scorpion infested road. Actually...

"How are we going to go along the road to Wall Market?" I asked, looking at the scorpions that were still hanging around from our mad sprint. "Those little blighters are still hanging around."

Cloud paused, looking at the scorpions that hadn't yet vacated the area. His face was devoid of any and all emotion, before a wide grin spread across his face.

"Well, we're safe behind the pheromones... why not just pick them off from here?" Cloud asked, gleefully.

That said, the swordsman focused on the scorpions of doom and cast thunder on a small group, frying them. Realizing what I had in mind, I smirked, pointing my gunblade at them and firing, repeatedly. Die, die, DIE, little buggers. I'll not have you make me live my life in fear any longer. MWAHAHAHAHA. Ok, maybe I'm getting rather carried away, butt I seriously HATE these things. Let them die. Everyone must die... Especially Bob, the very first scorpion I ever saw. I hope he dies a painful death. Barret joined in with the fun, opening fire with his own personal machine gun-arm. Tifa just sat back, watching the scene.

The air filled with the wails of dying scorpions... scorpions wail? Oh well, makes it more satisfying to KILL THEM ALL. I'll never be chased through this road again. NEVER. But then again, it's not like I'll actually have to after this. Chances are, like in the game, we'll leave Midgar, and go on a merry journey, battling evil where we come across it, in our band of misfits and miscreants.

As soon as the wails died down, we finally stopped raining death upon them, and stared out at the mayhem we'd caused. That... was a lot off scorpions. Just for the hell of it, I used my fire Materia, couple with my all-Materia, to cremate the lot of them. No sense leaving a mess, ey? That done, we finally set foot into the dangerous no-man's land. Guess what? No scorpions, no houses, no monsters in general. I think we have done a great service for the city of Midgar this day. I voiced those last thoughts aloud, and got the full hearted agreement of Cloud. It was thus, that we finally began our journey, following the cement road towards our destination, where we shall battle the evil Shinra... Am I starting to sound really cheesy? Yes? Then I'll shut up. Our journey to Sector 6 was otherwise uneventful, apart from when I threw a stone at Cloud for the heck of it, making him chase after me, waving that sword around. What is with the size of that thing anyway? Is he over-compensating for something, or is it just a coincidence? I'll leave you to be the judges of that.

We arrived at the Wall Market, a place that looked... like one of those Indian marketplaces that the spy always gets chased through in the movies. Only with actual buildings rather then stalls. Group decision was that we shouldn't stay in the hotel for the night, instead striking back at the Shinra, while we still had the element of surprise. Well, with luck, any attack on the Shinra by us would be a surprise, but they would still be so sure of themselves about now that an attack now would be especially surprising. You catch my drift?

Even though we decided not to stay the night at the hotel, through my incessant nagging, we did stop at the local diner for some dinner. We need to have our strength when we make the attack after all. I had a chili-burger, with loads of extra chilies. Oh, and a bottle of coke. Can't forget that coca-cola now, can we? Cloud decided on toad-in-the-hole, (the smell of **that** alone made me want some), Tifa a glass of water and some shepherds pudding. Barret had... a mountain of food that almost put my appetite to shame, a mountain of the diner special.

Food in our bellies, Cloud led us towards the area where the Don's mansion should be. And sure enough, there it was. What I wasn't expecting was Biggs talking to an official looking man, and handing him a small wad of cash. Barret's eyes almost popped out of their sockets at the sight of him. So, he did survive. Barret rushed forwards and grabbed Biggs in his bear hug. Did I just hear the poor bloke's spine crack? I sympathise, I really do, after having been in that position myself. Once the Mr T lookalike dropped the AVALANCHE member, Biggs started coughing, trying to regain his breath. I tell ya, not pleasant.

"Yo alive!" Barret roared, grin covering his face. Careful Barret, you may lose your hard nut reputation.

"Yea." Biggs coughed. "So is Jesse. She's inside the mansion."

Barret laughed, obviously happy that his lackey survived.

"You're going up in the world, I see." I joked. "One minute a secret basement, now a mansion."

Biggs grinned, waving his hand at the mansion.

"Yup. Me and Jess decided to make this the new base. We're going to make it a public building, possibly a posh restaurant, even hire a full time staff. Then the upstairs will be for our use only."

Barret's grin widened.

"Good job." He praised the smaller man.

"In the Don's old bedroom, there's a trapdoor that leads to the sewers. If you map it out properly, you'll also have the means to disappear and reappear elsewhere in the city." Cloud noted, obviously remembering the trap he fell for.

"Really? I'll have to check that out." Biggs noted. "Thanks, Cloud."

Cloud nodded.

"Erm... where's Wedge?" Biggs suddenly asked, looking at us, but, strangely enough, mostly me.

"He didn't make it. He died before we could tell him to get out of there." I informed him.

Biggs looked downcast a moment, obviously thinking about his friend.

"At least his death wasn't in vain. Strange, you would have thought that the Shinra would have been more inclined to pulling a stunt like that back when AVALANCHE was a bigger organization."

"Those damn Shinra never found out where we were based back then." Barret cut in. "When AVALNCHE had a more open warfare feel to it, rather then guerilla warfare."

"How old is AVANCHE?" I asked.

"Who knows?" Barret asked, rhetorically. "It could have originally started out as a terrorist cell, but then gradually changed to this group you see before you. It was all but dead when I became leader. We never did recover the numbers we lost when the Turks were through with us."

"Anyway, what're your current intentions?"

"We're launching an attack on Shinra Tower." I told him.

Biggs' eyebrows shot past his hairline.

"Really? Need me and Jess?" He asked.

"No..." Barret said, thinking. "After this attack, those involved will probably have to leave Midgar, for who knows how long. Yo' and Jesse... stay here, recruit more people. Wait until then, and then continue where we left off wit' those damn reactors. Keep givin' Shinra hell. We'll go somewhere else... maybe Junon, and we'll do the same there. They'll be fighting a battle on two fronts."

Biggs hesitated, before smiling sadly.

"I guess this is goodbye them?" He asked, holding out his hand. "It was swell knowing you Barret. Hopefully we'll meet again."

"Until the Shinra have fallen." Barret said, shaking his hand.

Biggs then turned to Cloud and they both shook hands, grunting a brief farewell. Tifa hugged the man instead of shaking his hand, almost sobbing her goodbye. Jeez, females and their emotional personalities. It's not like we'll never meet again, right. Biggs then turned to me and grinned.

"Goodbye, Spike. I barely knew you, yet, you saved my life, along with Jesse's. I hope we'll meet again."

"Me too." I replied, shaking his hand. "Don't die on us."

"I won't." He then took a step back and looked at all of us. "I overheard some kids talking about climbing a wire, one that supposedly reached the plates, down the alleyway halfway down the street. I'll tell Jesse you said goodbye."

With those words, we parted ways. I actually found myself regretting that I hadn't said goodbye to Jesse in person. Who knew whether we'd ever actually meet either of them again. Though I do hope that we do cross paths eventually, saving him... I have a feeling that it was one of the best things I could have done whilst here. I suppose that in the game, you're never around any of the three AVANCHE members long enough to get to know them before they died, unlike Aeris who was around to the point where everyone had their feelings towards her sorted. And the fact that, as he said, he barely knew me, yet he considered me a friend. Something about that made me feel good.

We found the alley that Biggs had mentioned and stepped though. It led us the the wall that gave this market its name, and stared at the long black wire that a trio of kids were climbing. On looking up, it did go pretty high. Who knows, maybe it does go to the top. But, it looked dangerous. If we fell while halfway up... no phoenix downs would revive us at that point.

"Awright! We'll climb this wire!" Barret exclaimed, excitedly.

Cloud shook his head. "There's no way we can do this. You know how far it goes up?" Erm... to the plate? Where we WANT to go?

"This IS away! Look! What's that look like?"

"Just a normal wire."

"Oh yeah? Well to me it looks like a golden shiny wire of hope."

"You're right. This is the only way to save Aeris…" Tifa put in her five cents. At least someone agrees that we should go.

"And this might be the only way up that won't alert the Shinra that we're alive." I added.

"Ok, that was a bad analogy, but, Barret, I understand how you feel. Let's go!"

"Wait... we're going to need some supplies. I want a nice fresh stock of potions before going up there." I claimed.

"Fine." Cloud grunted, pulling out a large wad of cash and handing it to me. "Grab as many potions and phoenix downs as this can buy."

I nodded and moved into the shop opposite. Inside, I ordered a handful of potions and managed to buy four phoenix downs. The clerk looked at me funny, but I shrugged it off, assuming it was the lizard body.

"You goin' up to the plate? You better have a Battery." He asked, right out of the blue. How the bloody hell does he know that?

"You're gonna sell me something you just found?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Honestly, I saw the scavengers outside, scavenging the heaps of debris.

"Hey, you knew? But I repaired it, so it's all right." Is he joking? How do you repair batteries anyway?

"Why do I need a battery to climb up to the plate?" Simple enough question. What do batteries have to do with climbing a length of wire?

"You'll find out when you get there." How do you know it's there? Did you climb it earlier? "How 'bout 100 Gil for each?"

"…All right, I'll take them." I mumbled pulling out my own set of cash. If I didn't, and I met an obstacle these batteries could have solved, I would scream.

Grinning, the clerk handed me a pair of batteries. They looked worn, but not that bad, condition-wise. Sighing, I stuffed them in my pockets.

"Pleasure doing business with you." The clerk called out as I exited the store.

I moved up to where Cloud and co were waiting, dividing out the potions. We took a Phoenix down, each. Supplies done, we started our long trek up the so called 'golden shiny wire of hope.' Cloud was right, that really was a bad analogy. But anyway, we began our long climb.

_I took control of our body here. Climbing, while not in a forest, was still my area of expertise. Luckily, I still had the knack for it, even after completely changing body. Well, maybe not completely. I am thankful that this body retained my strength, no offence to Jethro, but if we had the physical strength he'd had before any of this had happened, we'd be stuck._

None taken.

_Well, at least he agrees on the strength part. I started to climb first, then Cloud, then Barret, then Tifa. I think I can understand why Tifa demanded to be last, that mini-skirt isn't very practical when climbing. Not if there are people underneath you._

_After climbing about roughly ten meters, I stopped, staring at the scene before me. Jethro was right, how could anyone believe Shinra about there being a possibility of rescuing the victims of their actions? The destruction was... indescribable. The fires that engulfed the whole sector were red hot, and I could feel the heat from here. Carnage is the closest word that could even hope to describe this, but that doesn't seem a strong enough word._

_Prompting from my companions made me start climbing again. I deliberately kept my eyes off the scene below. Death, on such a scale... all because one man had the power to do so. It sickened me. Even my owner's thoughts were silent, where usually he couldn't stop thinking about something or other. He may protest otherwise, but he is still but a child, and no-one, not even adults, should have to bare witness to such scenes, knowing that there had been hundreds of people caught within. A comparison does come to mind. The Twin Towers. It's like that all over again. This place may only be a video game, but we're here now, and where you couldn't sympathize with computer characters that you never even saw, they were actual people now, and they had dyed. Only this was worse then Twin Towers, this was done by the person who was responsible for the well being of these people, the one who was supposed to care for them. And he abused that position of power, and he signed the death warrants for a whole eighth of his cities population. All to kill seven measly people, who were insignificant in the greater scheme of things._

_So wrapped up in my thought, I almost didn't notice that we'd reached a small platform, where it was impossibly for my human companions to continue climbing, unless we turn that fan to create a bridge to the next bit of piping._

What would a fan be doing here?_ Jethro asked, curiosity making him forget he scene from earlier. Good, he shouldn't have to be plagued by such a memory._

'Who knows?'_ I answered._

_Looking around, I noticed a small box to the side, and moved over to inspect it. By his time, the other three had reached the platform, and were searching for a way to continue. I reached the box and took a look. It had a large indent on the top, cubic in shape. Raising an eyebrow ridge, I pulled one of the batteries out of the coat pocket and stared at it. Exactly the right size. Coincidence? I have a feeling that the time between Sector 7's destruction, and our talking to Biggs, that clerk, or an assistant, climbed up here and took the time to take what wasn't theirs._

_Sighing, I slotted the battery into the socket, and watched as the fan rotated itself, spinning around a couple of times before the battery died, stopping the fan. Luckily, it was close enough to the point where my human companions could use it as a bridge across. I pivoted around, and without waiting for any thanks started to climb again._

_It was good to be able to climb like this, since being in this body; I haven't been in control except for fights. It's good to just be able to climb; like I used to take for granted before any of this happened. Well, not exactly like this, since I've never climbed a long wire, and never high enough to the point of death if I fell. But that's what life is about, tackling these challenges as they come._

_

* * *

_

We stood, down the street from the entrance to Shinra Tower. This was it. About an hour of climbing, and here we were, about to enter the devil's domain. Hey, was that good sounding? I like finding words that make it sound really good, like that. But anyway... Barret turned towards Cloud.

"Hey, you oughta know this building well."

"…Not really, now that I think about it, this is the first time I've ever been to the Headquarters."

"I heard about this place before. Every floor above the 60th is special and not easy to get to, even for employees. Must be where they took Aeris. The security's pretty light now. Awright, let's go!"

With those words, we charged towards the entrance. Just as we were a couple of feet from the door, Tifa stopped us.

"Wait a second! You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"

"Well what else does it look like? I'm gonna kick some Shinra butt and…" Three guesses who said that.

"That's not going to work! We've got to find another way…" Hey, Tifa, I thought you were the optimist.

"Ain't gonna be no other way! If we keep wastin' time like this, Aeris'll…"

"I know that! But if we get caught here… Hey, Cloud. …What should we do?" And thus Tifa turns to Cloud.

"I have an idea." I said.

"You do?"

_'You do?'_

I quickly revealed my plan to the lizard within, who quickly claimed that it wouldn't work, and he'd have no part in it. Unfortunately for him, he has no choice. I walked over to a sports store and smashed the window, much to Tifa's distress. Reaching in, I pulled out a baseball bat. I gave the trio a smirk, before explaining my idea. I'm going to be the distraction. The receptionist is going to be paid a visit by her very obstructive son, who enjoys dressing up n a lizard costume. The others were skeptical, but it would get us in, and the only alarm would be that a rebellious teen was smashing up the place because his mother was claiming she had no idea who he was. Idea approved, however reluctantly, I opened my coat and unclipped the sheath, pulling it, with gunblade still in it, out and handing it to Cloud.

"Take care of it." I ordered him.

Cloud nodded, accepting the gun-sword hybrid. Now, I must do my duty, and course as much mayhem as I could. This'll be fun. Resting the baseball bat on my shoulder, I casually walked in through the doors. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. The receptionist looked up, and gaped at the sight of me. I barely managed to stop the smirk from reaching my face. Taking a deep breath, I began my performance.

"Hey, mom!" I called out, attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

The receptionist stuttered, unable to say a word as I looked at her, waiting patiently for an answer. When none came, I just continued my performance.

"Me an' some friends were playing baseball, when we accidentally smashed the neighbor's window again. He says he's pressing charges this time. He wants money, in other words. But then he said that he'll be willing to be lenient of you spend the night with him again."

By this point the poor woman was trembling. Dunno what with, don't care. However, she finally found her voice again. Oh, she was trembling with anger.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

Ok, crocodile tears anyone? Easy, just think up the most depressing thoughts you can. Once I had the tears going...

"Oh, god... not this again. Just because I'm not the perfect son, you start pretending you don't know me. It's not MY fault dad left. But no, you just have to take out your anger on me. My friends think I'm weird, because all I ever wear is this lizard costume, so I can hide the bruises."

Hey, I have the audience on my side, they're all either giving me sympathetic looks, or glaring daggers at mother dearest. Speaking of the receptionist, she's now turned a vivid red. Good on her.

"Security, get this little whelp OUT!"

"Whelp now am I? WHELP?" I'll give her whelp.

This was why I had the baseball bat. I started screaming, more crocodile tears coming, and commenced with smashing up the receptionist's desk. The woman gave a shriek and stumbled backwards, trying to get away. A couple of the security guards came over, and neither of them looked sympathetic. One made a grab for me, but he received a baseball bat to the side of the head for his troubles. I screamed even louder, climbing over the desk, in an act to get away from them. Now all the attention has been drawn from the door, so once the security guard who was still conscious has moved, my friends could get in.

The receptionist shrieked when I leapt off the desk, tackling a few guards while at it, and landing near her. She ran though a nearby door and slammed it shut. Huh, how's that for motherly love? Running away from your child for being slightly odd in the head. The security guard that I hadn't knocked out slid over the desk and made to grab me. I ducked under his hand and tried to move away, but he managed to grab a fistful of my trench coat. Here is the reason I took my gunblade and sheath out of the coat, if when the guard had grabbed my coat, he'd seen my weapon, he'd know I was dangerous, as it stands, I'm just a nuisance.

I spun my leg around, kicking the guard in the face, and spied my companions getting into the elevator. There, now I just need to find a way to get in it without alerting everyone that I'm inside the actual building. The longer they think I'm in the lobby, the better. I started to run towards the stairs to the next level, rushing past a large group of people. A guard tried to follow me, but he promptly met my tail, up close. Hmm, I have a strong tail, he just did a flip; he should be thanking me.

I sprinted up the stairs, and stopped at the top. No guard, well now, its not very secure then, is it? The security started to troops up the stairs, which were only wide enough for it to be in a single file line. Eying my baseball bat, I grinned, and threw it at the leading guard. The aluminum bat flew down and connected with the guard's nose, probably breaking it. He staggered back, missing a step, and falling down the stairs, creating a domino effect, knocking over everyone behind him. Hehe, they make this way too easy. Using the time I had bought for myself, I ran to the elevator and thumbed the call button. Now, while waiting for the elevator to get here, which will take a whole five seconds, I opened a random door and then slammed it shut. That should make them think I'm in one of these rooms, rather then entering an elevator. That's the way you do it.

The elevator doors opened, revealing Cloud and company. Using what little time I had left, I ran inside and hit the button for the highest floor I could. Now, I was safe, and they believed me to still be down there, somewhere. And no-one suspected the fact that AVALANCHE was in the house.

"Have fun?" Cloud asked me, sarcastically.

"Yeah, actually, it was pretty fun." I answered.

The Spiky blond rolled his eyes, handing me back my gunblade. I mumbled my thanks, clipping the sheath back inside my coat. The elevator ride was much smoother than in the game, what with no alarms going off. I leant back, resting against the wall, waiting for the lift to stop at floor 60. We stopped about halfway, much to our confusion. The doors opened, and there, standing before us, was that same Shinra executive from the train. Huh, what a coincidence. When he spotted us, his eyes grew large, and he stepped back in alarm.

"Oh, erm… I'll… wait for the other elevator." He stuttered, before running down the corridor.

I sniggered as the doors shut, and the elevator started moving again. Cloud took up his usual position of thoughtfulness. Tifa seemed to sense something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I didn't want to start a ruckus till we saved Aeris. I should have known that was impossible though…"

Barret gave Cloud a look and started chuckling to himself. Cloud shot Barret a weird look.

"What is it? You're givin' me the willies."

"So there are times when even you fight for other people. I am impressed."

"Who cares if you're impressed…?"

"Y'know, I ain't so good at sayin' this, but… Sorry…for lotsa things."

Wow, Barret, apologizing? That's it, where's Jesus? Cloud shrugged, before giving the faintest of nods.

"And anyway, the ruckus was contained to the lobby. Unless that worker starts talking about us, then they have no reason to believe we're here. Even if he does talk, we should be off this thing by then." I said, picking myself up from the wall, noticing that we were near floor 60 now.

The doors opened, and we stepped out. Well… this is exactly what I would have expected from an office building… a large empty space. That was sarcastic, by the way. A large empty space, with a couple of doors, and a glass elevator type thing, in other words, the exec elevator. Oh, wait… one of the doors just opened and a couple of soldiers just walked in. Oh, if the fact that their uniforms are the same as Cloud's clothes, then they aren't just soldiers, but SOLDIERS. Yes, the capitalized version.

One of them was wearing a helmet shaped like a dragon's head, and was twirling a lance around. The other wasn't wearing a helmet, so I could see that he had steel grey eyes and shoulder length, curly, silver hair. This SOLDIER was holding a broadsword. Both started at the sight of us.

"Think these guys are intruders?" The spear user asked.

"I recognize the description given to us. These guys are AVALANCHE." The other one replied.

Both tensed up, readying their weapons. I pulled Talon from its sheath and relaxed, mentally trying to tell which one was weaker. I thing I'll go for the lancer. If I can get in his face, the lance is not quite as effective. Cloud pulled out his sword, and he, Tifa and Barret got into battle ready positions.

"Let's get them Kain." The sword user grunted, before charging at Cloud.

I followed the SOLDIER's lead and charged at Kain. I swung my blade at the lancer, but he hopped backwards, parrying my slash, before he took a stab at me, which I sidestepped. It's strange, how unlike the game this fight truly is, in the game it was turn based, in this it's… well… all out fighting. I ducked under a wild swing from Kain and cast fire, throwing a fireball at his chest, causing him to stagger back. I took the chance to slash at him, but he recovered quicker then I had anticipated and he blocked the attack. He twirled his lance around, hitting me in the face with the handle part of it before jumping into the air… and seemingly sticking to the ceiling. Oh, he's **that** Kain is he?

This is no lancer… this is a Dragoon. And right now he's crouching on the ceiling, probably charging up his jump back down. I'm not about to let him. I lift my gunblade up and fire at him. I didn't bother aiming, since right now I just want him down, without it being because he did an attack that would undoubtedly hurt. He looked shocked at my shooting at him, and lost his concentration, falling back to the ground with a yelp. That was actually rather comical, especially the way he just landed with nothing more than an: 'oof.' Oh dear, I believe I just wounded his pride, since his companion stopped fighting long enough to laugh at Kain's misfortune. Of course, Cloud giving a war cry stopped that, since the swordsman was more intent on keeping his life intact than not.

I smirked at the Dragoon, watching as he picked himself up, with as much dignity as he could. I rolled my eyes at the glare he directed at me, and cast blizzard, however, I didn't aim the spell at him, but instead at the floor that he was standing on. Kain gave a small gasp as the floor beneath him turned to ice, and he slipped, falling back to the ground. Hey, this is fun, let's just torment the Dragoon, until he gives up and leaves us alone. Hmm… I wonder. I quickly cast blizzard again, this time freezing the ceiling above the SOLDIER and then cast fire on the same spot. Hah! Kain just got rained upon.

Crikey! I think he's getting mighty pissed off. At least, if the clenched teeth and growling were anything to go by. He stepped off the ice patch, and out of the rain, and glared at me, before his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed. I grinned at Tifa, who had just done a Vulcan neck pinch, or something similar. She smiled back.

"Its not nice toying with SOLDIERS." She chided me, humorously.

"He shouldn't make it so easy." I sniggered.

She laughed, before turning towards the others. I looked and spotted Cloud and Barret, standing over the swordsman, who was panting. They seemed to be talking, but in hushed tones, so I couldn't hear from here. But it ended with Barret giving the man and helping hand up, which surprised me. A few more words, and the SOLDIER walked towards me and Tifa. I tensed slightly, but all the swordsman did was nod at us, before picking up Kain in a fireman's carry, and walking to the elevators.

"Erm… what happened?" I asked, looking at Barret.

"Cecil and Kain were only trainees, and hadn't known just what Shinra had done." Cloud answered for him. "When he learnt that it was Shinra that had destroyed Sector 7, he seemed to have a change of heart about his employers."

Makes sense though, the swordsman being called Cecil. That meant that they were the same guys from Final Fantasy IV. And they were good guys, so if they learnt that Shinra was evil, they would turn. But why did they believe Cloud and Barret?

"And he just believed you?" I snorted.

"Yes. Don't ask."

"And you just let him live?" I asked Barret.

Barret shrugged, looking at Cloud.

"If Cloud here can turn from Shinra, who's to say others can't?"

Isn't this just a tad out of character for Barret? Oi, Jade, what are you doing? Well, as long as this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass, I'll go along with it for now. But if this does go wrong, they'll be sorry they ever considered abusing this very un-Barret-like trust he was giving them.

Cloud moved over to the exec elevator, and slotted in a keycard. The doors opened, and he stepped in, motioning us to follow him. I walked into the glass elevator and stared at the view. Midgar was lit up, and it was a great view from here. I almost didn't realize that the lift had already stopped.

I stepped out and paused. Oh, jeez, that's a lotta guns aimed at me. Can't I ever get a break? The moans opened fire… and missed. Though they did come close, as it was I had to resort to looking like I was doing some weird dance as I ran back towards the elevator. However, Barret yelled at me not to go in, else they may... lob a grenade? Ok, point taken, I'll run about like a loony, hoping they'll continue to miss. Oh wait... stairs. Let's use them for cover. I never made it that far, since Barret waltzed out of the lift and gunned everyone down. I looked at the corpses and then at Barret.

"Next time, can we take the stairs?"

Barret snorted, searching the bodies. Eventually, he found another key card, which he pocketed with a smirk.

"Well, if they didn't know we're here before, the do now." Tifa snorted, looking at all the bodies.

"Relax." Cloud grunted, starting towards the stairs. "That was probably just a coincidence."

Well, at least we're taking the stairs this time. I might have been put off of taking the exec elevator for the rest of my life, solely because of my being shot at by a dozen guards after I left it. Well, at least the stairs offer more cover than an elevator which had walls made of glass. Just imagine if a security guard threw a grenade at us from while we were in the elevator. It's a long we down, and I have absolutely no intention of learning whether or not I'll suddenly develop the ability to fly. If I survive the explosion that is. See, stairs are better then elevators. Unless you're disabled, in which case, you're kind of restricted to the elevators.

Up the stairs we went, to the next level of entertainment... Ok, I really have to stop saying such things. This is hardly entertaining, for me at least. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to actually kick some ass, not merely taunt a Dragoon, and run around attacking people with baseball bats. We came up to the next level, and started at the number of executives just walking around. I don't know about the others, but I tensed right up, and my hand went to the hilt of Talon, prepared for alarms to start blaring. It didn't happen. Everyone... ignored us? No, not strictly true, an executive in an expensive black suit walked right past us and gave a small wave with a cheery:

"Good evening."

I just gaped at him, shocked that we weren't causing mass hysteria. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Cloud numbly waving back. Ok, this is weird. Am I dreaming? Or am I suffering from hallucinations for whatever reason? Ok... Let's make the best of it?

* * *

I have no idea how it came down to this. Rumors that Cloud heard and some other circumstances that I'm still trying to figure out. But honestly, why am I here? It smells. I'm sure there was a floater in that bog we had to stand on to get here, but, weird as I am, I am not going to start making a habit of checking random toilets for someone's un-flushed business. In case you don't know, we're hiding in an air duct that is right over a particularly foul smelling toilet. Only silver lining that I can see is our being over a meeting of the most powerful men in Midgar. Oh, and woman... if Scarlet counts as such. The meeting was just getting underway when we arrived.

"Geez, that's a lotta suits." Barret muttered, glaring down at the committee.

"We have the damage estimates for Sector 7." A young man spoke up, holding a clipboard. He was dressed in a light blue suit, but it wasn't the same shade as the Turk's suit. "Considering those factories we already set up and all the investments, the damage is estimated cost to rebuild Sector 7 is…"

"We're not rebuilding." President Shinra interrupted him.

"They're not?" I asked.

"What?" The young exec questioned, in obvious disbelief.

"We're leaving Sector 7 as it is. And restarting the Neo-Midgar plan." The President claimed.

"…Then the Ancients?"

"The Promised Land will soon be ours. I want you to raise the Mako rates 15 percent in every area."

"Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra, la, la!" A fat bloke sung. "And please include our Space Program in the budget!"

"Reeve and Scarlet will divide the extra income from the rate increase." The President said through the singing, which stopped.

"Oh man!" Fatso whined.

"Sir. If you raise the rates, the people will lose confidence…" Blue suit argued.

"It'll be all right. The ignorant citizens won't lose confidence, they'll trust Shinra, Inc. even more." The President calmly replied, looking rather bored.

Another man, this one larger then the whining fatso, (but it wasn't from fat, not entirely) started laughing, the sound of which made my spine shiver.

"Ha ha ha! After all, we're the ones who saved Sector 7 from AVALANCHE!"

Barret started to shake his fist, fire in his eyes. I wouldn't put it past him to gun down everyone in the room right now.

"That dirty fuck." He cursed.

At that point, a scientist with very greasy looking hair walked into the conference room. Jesus... talk about stereotypical, he looks like the complementary picture for the definition of scientist. The President noticed the scientist and grinned.

"Hojo. How's the girl?"

"As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother. I'm still in the process of comparing her to her mother, Ifalna, but for now the difference is 18 percent." Did anyone understand a word of that? It sounded like a load of complex words that have no meaning to me.

"How long will the research take?" The President asked, once his eyes had stopped clouding over.

"Probably 120 years." (Long time much?) "It's probably impossible to finish in our life time. Or in the lifetime of the specimen too, for that matter. That's why we're thinking of breeding her. Then we could create one that could withstand our research for a long time."

"What about the Promised Land? Won't it hinder our plans?"

"That's what I need to plan. The mother is strong…and yet has her weaknesses."

Those words said, the President turned to everyone else.

"That concludes our meeting."

Everyone started to gather their note and leave. Scarlet was the last to go, but she suddenly turned to stare at the vent, making us shrink back, hoping that she hadn't spotted us.

"Something stinks." She said, to absolutely no-one. Pointless much?

Well, now that she was gone, we turned to look at each other.

"They were talking about Aeris… right?" Cloud asked.

"I dunno." Barret grunted.

"Probably." Tifa said.

"Let's follow them." I suggested.

We gave a collective nod and crawled back to the toilet, where we climbed out of the air duct. First thing that I did once free of the narrow space of stinky-ness was to run out of the restroom and breathe pure air. The others were quick to follow. Well, we knew where the conference room was, so let's go there and see if we can meet any of the execs to follow. Cloud took the lead, turned a corner, before spinning back to us again. Pressing his back against the wall, he stuck his head out, spying on someone.

"Hojo…huh…?" He muttered, before motioning us to follow him.

The greasy haired scientist was walking towards the stairs, deep in thought. He seemed to know his way around pretty well, because even without looking, he still avoided all obstacles in his path and found his way to the stairs, which then led to his lab. However, being so deep in thought, he forgot to shut the door, which would have prevented us from progressing into his domain, since our keycard was only any good up 'till the floor we were just on. Well... his loss really, isn't it? If he hadn't wanted us to snoop around his lab, he should have been more careful. We paused briefly when we entered, ad Barret seemed to realize something.

"I remember him. That Hojo guy. He's in charge of the Shinra's Science Department. Cloud, don't know him?" Barret questioned Cloud.

"This is the first time I've actually ever seen him. So…that's what he looks like…"

"Why would Cloud have had reason to meet Hojo anyway?" I asked. "I doubt those in SOLDIER would have that much to do with the science department, except for medical reasons."

Barret shrugged. "Jus' wondering."

We followed Hojo to the other end of his lab, where he stopped before a large glass cell. He almost caught us stalkers, but thankfully there was a large stack of crates for us to hide behind. The scientist turned to an assistant.

"Is this today's specimen?" The assistant asked.

"Yes. We're starting right away. Raise it to the upper level."

The assistant nodded, before walking off. Hojo examined whatever was inside the cell.

" My precious specimen…" The scientist mumbled aloud, before following the assistant.

We came out of hiding, now that there was no-one to hide from. Tifa walked over to the glass cell, tapping the glass a couple of times.

"Precious specimen…? Is it going to be used for a biological experiment?" The martial artist wondered.

I took a few steps forwards and examined the cell's occupant. Hey, its Nanaki. I stopped Tifa as she was about to tap the glass again.

"Don't." I ordered her. "I doubt I'd like being ogled at like a zoo attraction if I were the one in there."

Tifa nodded, hesitantly backing off. At that point, a loud scream made us both jump. I spun around, ready to unsheathe Talon, but lowered my hand at the sight of Cloud writhing in agony on the floor. After a couple of seconds, he returned to normal, but started mumbling to himself. All I caught was 'Jenova' and 'Brought it here'.

"Cloud, be strong!" Tifa called to Cloud, who started to pick himself up.

Cloud pivoted around sharply, an almost wild look in his eye.

"Did you see it?" He demanded to know.

"See what?" Barret frowned.

"It's moving… Still alive?" Cloud seemed to question himself on what he saw.

Barret gave Cloud a look, before peeping though the small window that Cloud had pointed at. He pulled away almost immediately, scowling.

"Where's its fucking head?" He cried out.

Raising an eyebrow ridge at them, I took a turn at looking through the peep hole. What I saw was the deformed form of a woman. Yes, it didn't have a head. But it did still have eyes. Only...

"It has an eye on its tit." I exclaimed, pulling back, pulling a face. "It has a fucking eye on its tit."

"This whole thing's stupid. Let's keep goin'." Barret said after a moment, which was spent mirroring my expression.

"Right." I answered eager to get away from the eye-tit thingy. We piled into a nearby elevator and rose up to the next floor. On exiting the elevator, we spied an exact replica of the glass cell from before, only this one had Aeris inside it. Her face lit up when she spotted us. Well, we have our target in sight. Now to threaten Hojo into releasing her, then we can all go down to the pub, have a pint and wait for this whole thing to brew over. Oh, wait... that's Shawn of the Dead. No, we'll leave Midgar, go to Kalm or something, go to a restaurant, order a nice meal, and wait for this whole thing to brew over. Now THAT is a plan.

"Aeris!" Cloud yelled out.

Hojo turned to look at us, giving us all, me especially, a cold, calculating look.

"Aeris? Oh, is that her name?" He turned back to Aeris, but quickly looked at again, asking in a rather polite tone of voice: "What do you want?"

"We're taking Aeris back." Cloud told him. Real smooth.

Hojo's look changed to a frown.

"Outsiders..."

"Shoulda noticed it earlier, you…" Barret started.

"There's so many frivolous things in this world." Hojo responded, sounding rather bored.

Barret lifted his gun-arm, aiming it at Hojo's head. Hojo gave it an interested glance, before turning back to Aeris.

"Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The equipment here is extremely delicate. Without me, who could operate it? Hmm?"

Cloud made a sound of annoyance.

"That's right. I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves. Now bring in the Specimen!" he shouted out the last part.

A hole appeared in the middle of Aeris' cell, a gap which was quickly filled at the floor from the cell below rose up and transported Nanaki to Aeris' cell. Nanaki started to growl at Aeris, moving towards her like a predator does his prey. Aeris dodged a lunge from the four legged creature and screamed.

"Cloud, help!"

Cloud turned on Hojo, angrily.

"What do you think you're doin'?"

"Lending a helping hand to an endangered species… Both of them are on the brink of extinction… If I don't help, all these animals will disappear." Hojo answered, still sounding bored.

Tifa snarled, advancing on Hojo.

"…Animal? That's terrible! Aeris is a human being!" She growled.

"You're gonna pay!" Barret swore.

"Humansss have NO right to play god." I hissed. "Nor are they any better then any other speciesss."

"Barret! Can't you do anything?"

Barret hesitated a moment, before nodding.

"Awright! Step back!" He ordered, aiming his arm at the cell.

For the first time, Hojo started to show emotion, panic.

"Stop!" He cried out, panic lacing his voice.

Too late, Barret fired a short burst into the cell, which suddenly emitted a white glow, engulfing those inside.

"Wh…what are you do-- Oh! My precious specimens…" Hojo rambled, looking at the cell, panic-stricken.

The door on the cell opened, and Nanaki flew out, tackling Hojo, pinning him to the ground. Aeris then stumbled out, but Cloud grabbed her, pulling her away from the cell. We didn't get a chance to do much else, before the elevator started moving.

"...The elevator is moving." Cloud mumbled, looking at the gap in the middle of the cell.

"This is no ordinary specimen. This is a very ferocious specimen!" Hojo cried out, struggling to get Nanaki's weight off him.

"He's rather strong." The four legged creature told us, making Tifa jump. "I'll help you all out."

"It talked?" Tifa exclaimed.

Nanaki got off Hojo, who started to crawl away. He gave Tifa an indignant grunt.

"I'll talk as much as you want later Miss."

"We'll take care of that monster. Somebody take Aeris somewhere safe…" Here, Cloud paused, thinking. "Tifa, I'm countin' on you!"

Tifa nodded, before running off to the sidelines with Aeris. Cloud turned to Nanaki.

"What's your name?"

He jerked a head in my direction as he gave his answer. "He used to call me Red when he was an infant. You may call me what you wish."

"Then we'll stick with Red." Cloud grunted, unsheathing his sword as he turned towards the monster which emerged from the cell.

I pulled Talon out and stared at the monster, Spike checking it for a weakness. I took a step back as the ugly slime ball suddenly stretched out and tore a part of its flesh. The flesh then mutated into a whole new monster.

"Oh... wonderful." I said, sarcastically.

"As ever, Spike, your sarcasm is much appreciated." Red muttered.

Ok, so I'm guessing that the dream I had before was telling me that I knew Red from before we met up here. He knows my name and I haven't given it to him yet. Plus, he knows I'm a very sarcastic person. Smirking, I charged at one of the smaller monsters, deciding to take out the defence. You never know, this thing may actually be rather weak without its support.

Talon tore through the creature's flesh, slicing it in half. I rotated on the spot, swinging my leg around in a kick that crushed the skull of another one. If they have skulls that is. Another two of them rushed towards me, forcing me to retreat slightly, until Cloud joined in and did a cross-slash, completely dicing up one of them; the other decided that my bullets were a healthy diet, as I fired a round where I believe the face should be. Lots of slime flew out of the bullet wound, and the thing dropped dead. The larger one made a gesture at me, and suddenly I was surrounded by a green bubble. When it disappeared, I felt nauseous, and started retching. Ok, if this is what poisoning is going to be like, count me out in future. Oh, God, I think I'm gonna hurl.

I left Barret to fire his gun-arm at the small army of mutant rejects, and slouched over to a corner where I emptied my stomach. Please tell me I have an antidote somewhere on my person. I didn't. Figures. After hurling again, I turned towards my comrades.

"Anyone got an antidote?" I shouted out.

Barret fished around in his pockets, pulling out a bottle made of green plastic. He tossed it over to me, and I barely caught it. Hesitantly, since usually when I'm sick I don't really feel like drinking, I took a large gulp. Hey, the effect was instantaneous. I feel great. Now that I'm better, I can fight again. Tossing the half empty bottle over my shoulder, I gave a war yell and leapt at the larger creature, which was trying to take out Red.

My gunblade sliced through its arm, which... turned into another of the minions. And guess what, folks? The arm instantly grew back. Oh, that's really pleasant. I cast fire on the newest minion, and it went completely ablaze. Making a really nasty sound, it ran around in a frenzy, before turning Cloud's general direction. Its kind of hard not to laugh at Cloud's face when he spotted the living fireball come charging at him at high speeds. He just a strange sound as he dived out the way, unfortunately, giving it a clear path into Barret, who gasped as his trousers started to set alight. He quickly patted the fire out, and shot Cloud a sour look before firing a Big Shot at the minion master. The big thing screeched for about 5 seconds, and then cast Bio on Barret in retaliation. It's kind of interesting, watching him go so pale in a span of a couple of seconds. However, he pulled out a bottle of antidote before I could get to the point where he was throwing up.

I cleaved another minion in half, and watched as Red was tackled by one of the minions. He closed his eye in concentration for a brief second, before rushing out of the battlefield and tensing.

"This ends." He muttered, focusing his energy.

He then proceeded to charge at the monsters at high speeds. I rolled out of the way when he came towards me, and from my position on the floor, I bared witness to him charge **through** the minion master. For a moment, nothing moved. Then, all of the monsters in the area exploded. No, not with fire as such, but they did blow up, sending gunk everywhere. None of us did the victory jig this time, we were to busy wiping the grunge off of ourselves.

Aeris and Tifa chose that time to make their reappearance. Both women were pulling faces at the gunk that was everywhere, and were trying to step extra carefully.

"Aeris, you all right?" Cloud asked, trying to look dignified whilst being covered in slime.

"She seems all right… in many ways." Tifa informed him.

Red paused, thinking something unknown to the rest of us. He spoke up after a moment.

"I have a right to choose, too. I don't like two-legged things." I shot him a look, and he quickly amended. "You're the exception."

"What are you?" Barret queried, looking at Nanaki.

"An informed question. But difficult to answer. I am what you see. …You must have many questions, but first, let's get out of here." Cryptic answer.

"Cloud…so you did come for me." Aeris smiled.

"I apologize for what happened back there. I was merely acting to throw Hojo off guard…"

"Good acting. For a moment, I thought you'd lost it." I smirked.

"Now we've saved Aeris, ain't no need to be is this buildin'! So let's get the hell outta here!" Barret interrupted Red's coming answer.

"If all six of us go together, we'll be noticed. Let's break up in two groups." Cloud suggested. "Aeris and Red, you two with me. Spike, you lead Barret and Tifa. You take the stairs to the 60th floor, and then take the regular elevator to the ground. We'll take the exec lift."

"You got it." I acknowledged him.

With Barret and Tifa close behind, I ran to the stairs and started to make the journey down. I must have gone down five floors before I turned and skidded to a stop. Before me was a human barrier, consisting of three Turks. Reno, Cel, and Elena. Reno had a bandage wrapped around his head, covering one of his eyes, yet he still projected an aura of danger. Both he and Cel had their mag rods out. Elena was holding a pistol. Behind me, Barret and Tifa glared at the Turks. Hmm... what would be a good plan? We need to run, but how do we make sure that we get to safety? An idea came to mind, but the other two weren't going to like it.

I charged at Elena, pushing her over and leapt down to the next floor, my comrades close behind. Once there, I turned and pulled Talon free.

"Run." I ordered my friends. "I'll hold them off."

Tifa made to object, but fell silent when Barret rested his hand on her shoulder. She turned to him and he shook his head. He looked at me.

"Don't die on us." He ordered me.

"I won't if you won't." I joked.

Barret nodded, before leading Tifa down the stairs as fast as they could go. The Turks appeared in my field of vision. I moved to slash Cel, but he ducked under my gunblade and jabbed me in the stomach with his mag rod. I doubled over, and felt a sharp pain on the base of my neck, and I fell to the ground. I grunted, each time something hit me, continuously. After several failed attempts to get back on my feet, all of which resulted in a kick to the ribs, sending me down again.

After the fourth failed attempt, I swung my weapon wildly, and was rewards with the sound of someone gasping in pain. I used the momentary lapse in the assault to climb to my feet, but as I straightened up, I felt something forcefully enter my mouth. Looking up, I saw that it was a mag rod, being held be Cel, who gave a victorious smirk. His thumb flicked the switch, turning on the electricity.

I screamed as the high voltage surged through me body.


	11. Interlude: Abyss

Interlude: The Abyss

I was standing, in a dark, empty space. I had no memory of how I got here, I just suddenly was. I remember terrible pain, and then being here, no recollection of the transaction from the point of not being here to being here.

My surroundings were... dark. If I hadn't known better, I would have believed I was in space. But that's impossible. Even if I were in space, that doesn't explain why I was standing on something solid. Something solid, yet non-existent. There was nothing beneath my feet, yet that nothing was solid. Frowning, I took a step forwards. My foot landed on the same non-existent floor that I had been standing on. Still frowning, I took another couple of cautious steps.

After the fifth step, the floor decided that being non-existent, it shouldn't be holding me up as it is, and... became non-existent. Now with no floor supporting me, I fell, though I didn't feel scared or any such emotion. I just felt confused. Below me, a large body of water came into view, and started to get closer by the second. I braced myself, believing I was going to experience pain. I did. I would compare it to smashing into a cement surface, but considering the fact that I have never fallen from a great height onto a cement surface, I won't.

Whispers filled the air, telling me to awaken.

I slowly sunk through the water, which was just hot enough to be comfortable. I shut my eyes, ignoring the fact that I seemed to be able to breath. Mysteries aren't my area of expertise, and this whole experience was just one big mystery after the other. I heaved a sigh, and opened my eyes; just in time to see myself leave the water. Huh, floating water. Haven't seen anything like it for a long time. Only one that I can even remember was in the original Quake. Grunting, I looked down...

* * *

I sat up with a gasp, breathing heavily. I was lying in the middle of a bright room. All around me, were tall statues. Getting to my feet, a walked over to the closest one and examined it. Didn't look like anyone I know, or anyone that I've ever seen. Ancient warriors, by the looks of their armour. Ancient Gods, maybe? No... A closer look revealed the statue closest to me to have a face exactly alike that of Jade's. Like I said before, one big mystery after the other.

Taking a look around, I spied a door. Ignoring the feeling that something was wrong, I made for the door. Just as I touched the door handle, and axe embedded itself into the wall besides me. Spinning around, I watched as the statues moved towards me, steps causing mini earthquakes. This presented me with a choice. Fight the seven odd statues, or run.

I picked the coward's way. I yanked open the door, jumped through, and slammed it shut. A long spear ripped through whatever material the door was made off and stopped, inches from my neck. I gulped, taking a step away from the long, pointy stick.

The very air whispered for me to wake up.

Another step, and I fell up. Yes, upwards, almost as if gravity had decided to work in reverse. How lucky for me that I landed on my feet, having flipped what should have been upside down. I stumbled a bit when I landed, but I was otherwise fine. The door above me (or was that below me?) splintered and out came one of the statues. I didn't wait for it to decide to use the crossbow it was holding, and ran in a random direction, so long as it led away from the menacing statues.

I eventually came to a round door, one that looked warm and inviting. I walked towards it, but something fell in front of me. Something white. I stumbled back, and flinched when another white thing landed behind me. The two sides we quickly blocked off in the same manner. There was a bright flash of light.

* * *

I opened my eyes, and slowly sat up, observing my surroundings. It looked like I was in a hall of mirrors. All along the walls, were mirrors. Climbing to my feet, I moved to the closest mirror and looked at it. I saw my reflection. Inside the mirror was me, as a human, but with my current body standing behind the human one. A voice started speaking, coming from nowhere.

**They tell of the Lizard. One who was once human, and will be forced to fight.**

Yeah, and I tell of a strange disembodied voice. One that should shut up. Shaking my head, I moved to the next mirror. The reflection had nothing to do with me, instead it showed a trench-coat clad girl...woman... whatever. She looks around the same age as me, but I'm no good at reading peoples ages. But I did know who she was. I didn't have that episode of pain a while ago just to forget her name. It was Maggie. The voice spoke up again.

**They tell of the Savior. One who will be forced to make a choice.**

"They also tell of the one who should shut up." I spoke aloud.

Sighing, I moved to the next mirror, and peered at it. Another girl; another one from my vision. The cat-girl. I moved on, not giving the voice a chance to start its annoying rambling. Next mirror, yet another girl, and last one from my vision, the depressed one. Well, at least from what I gathered when I saw her back in the reactor. Again, I moved on, preferring not to listen to some loud voice blabber on.

Almost every mirror I looked at had someone within it. I stopped to listen to a couple of the vague descriptions, but they didn't tell me much. Such as, why was one girl labeled 'The Punished', why was one man called 'The Driver' and another 'The Warrior'? What did we all have in common?

I stopped and stared at the last mirror, and raised an eyebrow ridge. Unlike the others, this one was completely clouded ever by some kind black mist. I reached out a touched the glass surface, and recoiled in pain. The glass with hot, very hot.

**They tell of the Destroyer. She, who will risk all, and will destroy all. She, who will do anything, so long as her will is fulfilled. She, whose power, is unmatched. The coming end.**

That was a little more descriptive than usual. And makes her out to be evil. No, wait, it quite blatantly told me that she was evil.

At that point, the walls twisted around, and I found myself in the exact opposite of that place that I had started in. Opposite, as in it was white, as opposed to black, and that the floor was visible. It was a large round disk, with a picture of me. The picture had me cut, bleeding, but looking... cheerful, much more cheerful then I've ever felt so far whilst in this body. Even though I was still in this body in the picture, there was something right about it.

A familiar voice whispered to me, begging me to wake up.

I was torn from my musings by sudden arrival of what looked like an egg. True, it was about half my size, but I'm sure it was an egg of some kind. I looked up and watched, fascinated, as another dozen eggs fell from nowhere and landed all around me. For a moment, all was still, before a loud cracking filled the air. I watched as the eggs cracked, and then crumbled, turning to dust, leaving about thirteen... **me**'s?

Ok, I've joked about having a mini-me during science, when the topic was asexual reproduction, but jeez, thirteen of them? The idea of only having **one **was scary for my class-mates, but this much scares even me. Over a dozen me, and they were all eying me hungrily. One of them charged at me, swiping his claws at me. Grunting, I side-stepped the attack and pulled Talon free, slicing at the mini-me's back. Blood came pouring from his back, and he stumbled to the ground.

The rest of the group hesitated, before charging at me, all claws and teeth bared. Except one, I barely had time to notice. One of me stayed back, watching with interest. I couldn't think on it for long, since the rest of me had reached me and were attacking. Their claws and teeth were a lot sharper then mine, causing me to focus on killing each of them with a single attack, otherwise my back was open. They didn't seem to have any intelligence though, thus didn't learn that charging in a single file line was just a fancy way to commit suicide. They were killed quickly. I slashed the last one across the stomach and stepped back as he fell to the ground. I looked at him as he gasped though. He managed to roll onto his back and looked at me, tears coming from his eyes. He continued to gasp, moving his mouth, trying to speak.

"Da...Da...Daddy... Why?"

Did he just call me 'daddy'? What the hell? I knelt down beside him and watched, as he looked at me, pain and... betrayal, were evident in his eyes. He died, quickly. The light left his eyes and he breathed his last. I turned to the one who had stayed out of the fight, glaring as he sniggered. Unlike the others, this one showed signs of intelligence, as he unsheathed a pair of katana. He charged at me with a yell, swinging the two swords at me. I spun out of the way of his attack, and sliced at him with Talon. My gunblade sliced though his neck, decapitating him. I swallowed, looking at the head that had landed in such a way that it was facing me. There was no blood though. Slowly, the head changed into my own human head. I took a step back, swallowing down the bile that had risen into my throat. The head stared at me, hazel eyes ablaze with hatred. Slowly, the mouth opened, and uttered a single word.

"Murderer."

I took another step back. An inky blackness started to come out of the head's mouth. The blackness swallowed all that it touched. It devoured the floor at my feet and I fell, swallowed by the darkness.

I landed inside a café, or some such place. Chairs, tables, food, people eating the food. Hot dogs in particular. I hissed as I pulled myself to my feet yet again. There was something familiar about the place. I tried to recall, but decided better of it when everyone in the vicinity started to panic at my appearance. Obviously a bi-pedal lizard appearing from out of nowhere wasn't a familiar occurrence.

I awaited Spike's mental reply, scoffing at what I had just thought, but none came. I checked my mind for the lizard within, but couldn't find the presence that had made my mind his home. He was gone... but where? No time to find out, the people who had previously been so panicked were now pulling out various weapons. I scooped Talon from the floor and watched for any sudden movements.

A loud, echoing footstep made me turn around. There, 7 feet away, was a most terrifying creature. It looked vaguely human, but all the humanity was ironed out, leaving this hellish creature, which pulled out a sword that put Cloud's sword to shame in terms of size. That has to be the single most missive sword I've ever seen. His hilt alone was half the size of the Buster Sword, so picture the rest of the weapon, which was about five times bigger. How the hell can anyone lift that thing?

The creature stepped closer, another thundering footstep. And another. Soon, it was only a couple of steps away from me, and it chose that moment to swing its sword at me. I swung my own weapon to counter it, but deep down, I knew it was futile. The heavy sword hit my gunblade, and the world around me shattered.

I found myself facing the mirror that was clouded over again, only the smoke was leaving the mirror. My brief hope that this meant I'd finally see the person in the mirror turned to horror when the smoke destroyed all that it touched, leaving a void. It wasn't white, it wasn't black, it wasn't any colour, but it was there, or to be more accurate, it wasn't. It was nothing. A foul laughter came from nowhere, and a deep instinct within me yelled at me to run. Not about to argue with my instincts, I turned and ran. I ran, and the smoke followed, coming after me, tendrils reaching out to grab me. I spotted a bright light and made for it, somehow knowing that it was safety. I put all my energy into running, pushing myself harder and harder. When one of the statues from earlier got in my way, I did a baseball slide between its legs, the sword that the statue was holding stabbing into the ground just after I'd already passed.

The very walls were shouting now, telling me to awaken from my slumber.

I knew what it meant now.

I dived through the hole from which the light was coming from, just as the smoke managed to catch up with me.

* * *

I woke up with a gasp, retching. I didn't look at my surroundings, for I knew where I was. The only place I would be, after being taken out by a Turk. Hojo's lab. I looked up, and sighed in relief when I saw Cloud and the others.

_'Welcome back to the land of the living.'_


	12. Out of the Frying Pan

Chapter 11: Out of the Frying Pan

I took a large gulp of air, before examining my surroundings. I was sprawled out in a large puddle of some green liquid of some kind. I sat myself up and looked behind me, finding a strange pod, only the glass from the front of it was shattered. Dripping from the pod, was some of the same stuff that I was currently lying in. I really should get up, but I felt really numb. I grunted, trying to pick myself up anyway. It didn't work out too well, and I fell back into the puddle with a small splash.

"Stasis pod." Red spoke up. "Where Hojo stores his 'specimens' when he isn't using them. The numbness will wear off in a couple of seconds."

"Thanks." I choked out, my voice really sore, but that's to be expected, I did just swallow a high voltage of electricity.

That experience brings to mind a question about my mortality here. Am I guaranteed my continued survival while here? Or is there a chance that I could wind up dead? Something to interrogate Jade about sometime.

True to Red's word, the numbness did wear off after a couple of seconds. With my body now feeling awake, I stood up, feeling my joints clicks. It should have occurred to me that it was very rude of the others to just stand there while I was sprawled out on the floor, in a large puddle of something that didn't exactly look very healthy. It looks like radioactive goo now that I can see it without being in it. Some friends they are... Wait... why are they all looking anywhere but at me?

_'Look down.'_

Raising an eyebrow ridge, I did as instructed and looked down. Ok, I see the floor, covered in a large puddle of the green liquid. What am I supposed to be seeing here? Wait... I look up at the others, glaring.

"Ok... Where the hell are my clothes?"

Indeed. I'd spent the better part of a minute standing there in the buff.

* * *

Several minutes later, I was muttering under my breath, making all sorts of threats and curses and promises of what I'll do if I ever see Hojo again. I pulled on my t-shirt, and reached for the coat, every so often directing a glare at my companions. Honestly, why the hell did they just stand there? They could have at least found my clothes first, and then freed me from the stasis pod. But no, they freed me, and then decided that they should just stand there like a bunch of idiots.

I shrugged my coat on, still glaring at my companions. While I was getting dressed, Cloud explained to me what was going on. Seems I've been out of it for the better part of a day. Barret and Tifa were still caught, despite my attempt to hold off the Turk. Seems that Reno pulled of some fancy stunt, that caught them between himself and a squad of SOLDIERs. Cloud, Aeris and Red were cornered in the glass elevator by Rude and Tseng. Seems that the good President had told them I was dead, before going all clichéd on them and gave away all his plans. He's looking for the Promised Land. Same old, same old. But sometime during the night, the Shinra Tower became a slaughter house. Everywhere you look, dead bodies lay skewered. Or worse. My glaring was halted at the sight of one of the bodies. Or rather... half of one...

Red hadn't stayed long, he'd gone ahead to investigate, something about the smell in the air. Oh... I almost forgot to mention. A certain headless creature with an eye on its tit, is missing. Seems someone or something smashed it out of its chamber. Once I was fully dressed, Cloud took off with the girls in tow, leaving me with Barret. Both me and the big burly Mr T wannabe followed after them, lagging behind somewhat. The whole tower could be compared to a blood bath, dead bodies lay everywhere. I might not be an expert, but t was obvious that they were cut down by a bladed weapon. Well, not too difficult to guess who it was then, is it?

There weren't many enemies about, just a couple of monsters. Most likely escaped experiments, seeing as Hojo's lab looks like a tornado passed by... and then came back to try and apologize, only to make it worse, because its a freaking tornado. Neither Barret or me said a word; something didn't feel right, and the dead bodies everywhere only made that feeling more blatantly obvious.

_Hey, you've been quiet since I woke up._ I noted mentally at Spike. _Any reason?_

_'You were dead.'_

_Ya... switching to a healthy diet of electricity generally does that to a person. I'm assuming I was given a phoenix down?_

_'No... You were dead. When the Turks gave us just enough phoenix down to keep us alive, it only revived me, your mind was dead. Gone.'_

_Hmm... I couldn't have been. I remember having this dream..._

_'You didn't dream. I can sense when you're having a dream... I usually see them myself, at the back of my mind, like I'm imagining it myself. You gave off no mental activity. Dead... and I don't understand how you came back.'_

_Maybe there's a reason that we'll never know... something like the Stasis Pod pumped phoenix down into our system. Try not to think about it. I won't._

Truthfully, I won't think about it. Mysteries ain't my thing. If we find the answer sometime, then good; if not, I'll just go with the answer I gave Spike, maybe they pumped phoenix down into my body while I was in the Stasis Pod.

Me and Barret moved up to the top floor, following the trial of blood. Only one more set of stairs to reach the President's office. Inside the office, we found the others standing around, gaping at something. Barret barged past them and aimed his arm at where the President usually sat. After a couple of seconds, he started to gape as well. I looked over his shoulder and decided to break the trend by not gaping. Though I did stare at the sword the impaled the President. The seven foot long sword nailing him to the desk. Dear god... how does anyone use a sword as long as that? I'd probably just fall forwards in a comical way if I even tried.

"He's dead." Barret whispered, sounding like he couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. "The leader of Shinra is dead..."

Must resist urge to say something sarcastic...

"No... he's more alive then ever before, that sword sticking out of his spine is making him immortal."

I never was very good at suppressing urges like that. Barret shot me a look, but otherwise ignored me in favour of his new hobby. Cloud's eyes were glaring at the sword sticking out the President's back, fists tightly clenched. Tifa shuddered at the sight of the katana.

"Then this sword must be..." She began, but Cloud cut her off.

"Sephiroth's!" The swordsman grunted, emotion void from his voice.

"Sephiroth is alive?" Tifa asked, taking a step back.

Cloud paused a moment, thinking.

"Looks like it." He shrugged. "Only Sephiroth can use that sword."

"Who cares who did it? This is the end of Shinra now!" Barret boomed out.

"I doubt it's that easy." I said. "There's still that big council meeting we watched. That Heidegger bloke looked like he'd take advantage of something like this if he could get away with it."

Ain't I just the pessimist? But it's likely true. Barret's grin at the thought of victory slid off his face, and he scowled at the corpse, most likely blaming it for the lack of world peace. Sighing, I shook my head at Barret's sudden naivety, when a brief flicker of movement caught my attention. It must have caught Cloud's eye as well, since he jerked his head in the direction that it came from. Both of us stared at the pillar that obviously hid whatever had moved, when Palmer came charging out from behind that very pillar, barreling into me. I grunted as I was knocked flat on my ass, jeez, he's like a juggernaut with all that body-mass backing him up.

Barret and Cloud proved to be a sufficient road-block for the chubby would-be juggernaut. Both of them took an arm each and held him in place, for we all know that a juggernaut is only unstoppable once it actually gets some momentum. Now powerless, Palmer started to plead for his life.

"P, p, p, please, don't kill me!" He stuttered.

"What happened?" Cloud demanded.

"Se …Sephiroth. Sephiroth came." Palmer said Sephiroth's name like he was afraid he'd be punished for it.

"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?" Cloud's voice became even more demanding.

"Yeah, I saw him! I saw him with my own eyes!"

"You really saw him?" Cloud asked, again.

"Uh!" Palmer deadpanned, looking at Cloud like the blond he was. "Would I lie to you at a time like this? And I heard his voice too! Um, he was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land."

"Then what?" Tifa queried. "Does that mean that the Promised Land really exist and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shinra?"

"So he's a good guy then?" Barret's grin returned.

"Life isn't made up of black and white morals. Those are just the extremities."

I smirked mentally at the grin turning upside down, becoming a frown.

"Save the Promised Land?" Cloud scoffed, obviously agreeing with me. "A good guy? No way! It's not that simple! I know him! Sephiroth's mission is different!"

"So in the scale of black, white and the many various shades of grey... where does Sephiroth stand?" I asked.

Cloud opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the sound of a helicopter landing outside. Palmer somehow managed to break free and ran out a door to the outside. Barret examined the landing chopper through the window.

"Rufus!" He exclaimed. "Fuck... I forgot about him!"

"Who's that?" Tifa asked.

"Vice President Rufus. The President's son."

"And soon to be President." I murmured, leaning closer to Barret. "Told you it wasn't the end of Shinra."

Cloud moved through the door, following Palmer, and the rest of us followed. Outside, Palmer was talking to a tall, blond kid, clad in a white business suit. I say kid, because he didn't look to be that much older then me. Early twenties at the most.

"So... Sephiroth was actually here." Rufus mused aloud, once Palmer had finished speaking. He looked up and noticed us standing there watching. "...by the way. Who are you guys?"

Cloud struck a (supposedly) heroic pose, one that, to quote Edmund Blackadder, just cried: 'here are my genitals, please kick them', before giving his answer.

"I'm Cloud Strife, former SOLDIER First Class."

Barret shook his fist. "I'm from AVALANCHE!"

"Same here!" Tifa spoke up.

Aeris hesitated a moment. "...a flower girl from the slums."

Nanaki also paused. "...a research specimen."

"Gunblade wielding maniac with a sarcastic sense of humour." I concluded.

Rufus looked amused at our introduction, grinning at us.

"What a crew." He laughed. "Well, I'm Rufus. The President of Shinra, Inc."

"You only President, 'cause yer old man died!" Barret snarled.

"That's right." Rufus' grin turned from one of humour, into one of maliciousness. "I'll let you hear my new appointment speech… Old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working. The population thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay. If a terrorist attacks, the Shinra army will help you. It looks perfect on the outside. But, I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them."

"He likes to make speeches, just like his father." Tifa noted, wryly.

Cloud frowned briefly, before turning to Barret.

"Get outta this building with Aeris!" He ordered the leader of AVALANCHE.

Barret stared at Cloud like he'd grown a new head.

"What?"

"I'll explain later! Barret!" Cloud's voice was laced with annoyance and slight desperation. "This is the real crisis for the Planet!"

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Barret demanded.

"I'll tell you later! Just take my word for it now! I'll go after I take care of him!"

Barret hesitated, before sighing.

"Awright, Cloud!" Barret agreed. He motioned for everyone to follow him, but when I tried to follow, he turned to me. "Spike, I wanna thank you for earlier. It may 'ave been useless in the end, but it told me all I need to know about you. Stay here an' help Cloud. Make sure he comes back an' explains everythin'."

Erm... I get to fight Rufus? Ok. I nodded once at Barret, before pivoting around and taking up a position beside Cloud. Cloud didn't openly acknowledge my presence, though I did see him give the barest of nods.

The rest of the group ran back the way we had come from. I rested my hand on the handle of my gunblade, staring at the President. He coldly stared back.

"Why do you want to fight me?" He asked, shifting his gaze to Cloud.

"You seek the Promised Land and Sephiroth."

"Hm, exactly." Rufus nodded. "Mm? Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

"Nope... just that he was supposedly 'brilliant, maybe to much so'." I muttered.

"…A lot has happened. Anyway, I can't let either you or Sephiroth have the Promised Land!"

"I see. I guess this means we won't become friends." The new President sighed.

"No... you don't say? Here I thought we were establishing a best of friends bond." I hissed, like the sarcastic git that I am.

Rufus rolled his eyes, and made a gesture at the helicopter, which promptly took off, but not before a large black feline creature jumped out. The cat hissed at me and Cloud, taking a place besides its master. Rufus grinned, stroking the cat's head before pulling out that sawn-off shotgun he used in the game. Cloud pulled the Buster Sword from his back, and I followed suit, unsheathing Talon. Rufus eyed us both,perhaps wondering who the weaker link in the chain was. I decided I wasn't about to let him find out and charged at him, gunblade poised for a overhead chop. Cloud followed my lead, and also charged at the President. Both of our blades neared him, and I wondered why he wasn't reacting in any way. A second before my blade reached his head; I remembered that his pet Dark Nation had an annoying habit of casting barrier... Oh, crap.

My blade hit a transparent barrier that hadn't been there before, and went back in the direction it had come from, sending me flat on my ass. It wasn't all bad though, as I did get to witness Cloud spinning on one foot, like he'd taken up ballet. I shot Rufus an indignant look, jumping back to my feet. I managed to lift my blade up, only to have Rufus start shooting at me. I leapt back in shock as the bullet flew past me. I levelled a glare at Rufus. How dare he have the cheek to fire at **me**? Well, two can play at that game. I enjoyed watching his expression turn to shock when I fired several rounds at him. Yes, they bounced harmlessly off the barrier, but at least I taught him not to shoot at me. Or not, since he took my act as an invitation to fire at me some more. I dived sidewards, intent on avoiding the barrage of bullets flying at me. Rufus stopped, briefly, and that pause was enough for me to cast blizzard at him. Rufus dropped his gun in favour off nursing the hand I'd just encased in a block of ice. Cloud took advantage of Rufus' dilemma to execute a cross-slash at the President. The barrier shattered, leaving Rufus vulnerable.

Attempting to take advantage, I moved in to finish him off, but found myself thrown to the ground. I looked at the heavy weight that had formed on my chest and met the eyes of the Dark Nation.

"Get off." I grunted at the cat, trying to reach for my gunblade.

The Dark Nation ignored my words in favour of hissing at me. It's times like this I wish I could belch on command, just so that I could belch in the cat's face, hopefully getting it off of me. My fingers managed to brush the handle of my gunblade, but I couldn't get a grip on it. I had to do this the old fashioned way. I swung my fist at the cat's head, and was satisfied with the yelp I was rewarded with. But, contradicting my wish for it to get off of me, the feline instead attempted to claw my eyes out. I did what any rational human being would do (despite not exactly being a human now), and brought my arm up to protect my eyes. Several scratches later (which were painful, might I add, definitely worth -200HP of damage, each), I was looking for another way to get this flee-bag off me, preferably without provoking it into scratching me again.

"Spike! Stop playing with that cat and help me here!" That was Cloud.

"Sure, let me just politely ask it to kindly SOD OFF!" I snapped.

Hmm... we're fairly close to the edge from here. It's just, what, a few of feet above my head? Close. I hope my plan works... if it could be called a plan. I slammed my palms into the cat's chest, shoving it off me, but, as was predicted, it tried to jump back onto me before I could even take a quick breath. I had started to roll backwards, and planted my feet against the Nation's stomach, using the momentum of both my roll and its leap to throw it towards the edge.

"Nooo! Dark Nation!" Rufus cried out, seeing his pet fly over the edge.

I stood up and gave him a funny look.

"You're fighting against a pair of anti-Shinra terrorists, and you're crying over the pet cat, that you let fight, dying?"

Rufus didn't answer me. Not with words anyway, instead he opted to go trigger happy with that shotgun of his. Though in his anger, he missed nearly every shot. Note that I said **nearly**. One shot his me in the shoulder, sending me staggering back, clutching my shoulder. Regrettably, I stepped over the edge of the roof. I barely managed to grab onto the e end of the roof, saving myself, but with only one hand (my shoulder just got shot remember, I couldn't move that arm to save my life) I wasn't sure how long I could hold on. It didn't help that I hadn't managed to get a very good grip. Already, I could feel my fingers inching towards the end of the roof, and with it, the end of my life. Somehow, I doubt that a Phoenix Down can revive someone from the state of being splattered across a 50 meter radios. Goodbye cruel world, hopefully I'll wake up on my bed, heart beating a hundred miles an hour, and I'll forget all about this experience.

I was saved, however, by Cloud suddenly sliding up to the edge and grabbing my hand just as my grip was lost. The swordsman grit his teeth as he used his other hand to hold the Buster Sword and deflect a few shots from Rufus.

"Heh, that's all for today." Rufus claimed.

I couldn't see him from this wonderful position, dangling over the edge of the tallest building in Midgar, but I'm pretty certain that he's just got in the helicopter to run away. Coward. At least that meant that Cloud was now free to get me back onto solid ground. He managed to hoist me up, easily enough. Once I was in a state of not dangling over a great drop, I finally released the breath I'd been holding. I would say it was a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been hiding, but not only is that remarkably clichéd, but it would also be a lie.

"Let's go." Cloud ordered, already running towards the door.

I followed after him, my tail scooping up my fallen weapon and giving it to my hands. Weapon back in my possession, I quickly used the restore Materia that I had equipped it with, mending the bullet wound in my shoulder. It didn't do much for the bullet hole going through the shoulder of my coat and t-shirt though. Damn, now I'll have to replace them.

I followed Cloud towards the exec elevators, and almost slammed into him when he came to a rather sudden stop. Snarling, I sidestepped around him and promptly slammed into Tifa. She fell to the ground; I just stepped back in bemusement. The martial artist climbed to her feet, dusting herself off.

"Where's Rufus?" She asked.

"We couldn't finish him." Cloud answered. "Looks like this is gonna get complicated."

The three of us ran towards the elevators, but we found that they weren't working. No matter how much we hit the elevator call button, the panel remained unlit.

"Looks like we'll have to use the stairs and the use the regular elevators." I commented.

"Right. Let's mosey." Cloud urged us.

I resisted the urge to groan at the lamest line ever. Instead I moved the the staircase and started down it, closely followed by the other two. Luckily, their were no Turk ambushes this time. Down, down, down we went, as fast as we could go, until we hit the same floor that we had fought Kain and Cecil on. We moved over to the regular elevator, which, to our relief, opened as we approached. Deciding to forgo subtlety, I grabbed the occupant by the neck and tossed him out of the way. We entered the small metal room and Cloud hit the button for one of the lobby level floors. And thus, we stood there, frowning in annoyance at the really annoying elevator music. It wasn't soon enough that the doors opened, allowing us to leave the horrible, Satan spawned music. Cloud stopped and started admiring a pair of motorcycles.

"Tifa, go on ahead." Cloud commanded, still admiring the bikes. "Get everyone that odd truck we saw, sneaking in."

"Right." Tifa nodded, before running ahead.

"How's your motorcycle driving skills, kid?"

"Never tried to drive one before. Its just the same as riding a bicycle isn't it? Only automated." I replied, grinning at the prospect of driving a motorcycle.

"Close enough. Always wanted to ride one of these things." Cloud commented, hopping onto the bike closest to him.

I followed suit, climbing onto the second one. I hesitated for a brief moment, wondering about the key, but found it in the ignition.

"Not very burglar-proof, are they?" I asked, sarcastically.

"I don't think anyone's ever been foolish enough to rob from the Shinra Tower before."

With those words, Cloud revved the bike before accelerating, leaving me coughing in his dust trail.

I tell you, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would actually be driving down a highway, on a motorcycle, at breakneck speeds, while being pursued by other motorbikes. Oh well, life has hardly been normal for the last couple of days, lets not have the full shock of the realization come now of all times.

I swung my gunblade to my left, slashing through the tire of yet another Shinra motorcycle, and yet again creating a pileup. Oh, hey, look, that Shinra biker just did a flip. Too bad he didn't take the hint and turn back, instead accelerating towards Cloud. His loss. Cloud's sword tore through the bike, turning it to scrap metal. The blond twirled his sword around, in the same style as his victory gesture, before stabbing it into the side of another bike, destroying it. I fired several rounds at another biker who tried to overtake me, killing him. The now rider-less bike swerved to the side and crashed into yet another biker, sending him flying. Jeez, talk about road-rage. My first time on the road as the driver, and I get caught up in the biggest case of road-rage ever.

I shot Cloud a thumbs up, before Spike shouted in my mind to duck. Not one to ignore a lizard that had been very quiet lately, I did so and immediately thanked him as the blade flew where my neck had previously been. I sat upright and deflected the next blow, getting a good look at my assailant. Oh yes, thank you jade. If there was anybody I had wished to not fight against, it just happened to be that very person riding the bike next to me. Why SQUALL LEONHART of all people? I swerved my bike to avoid his next swing, at the same time slamming into another biker, sending him flying. Squall frowned at me, his steel, grey eyes boring into me. You know, it'd be so easy to just shoot out his tire, but seeing as he didn't do such to me, I'll try to make this as honourable as I could, and leave shooting out his tires as a Plan C. Plan B is Cloud waltzing in and joining us.

I moved closer to Squall and swung Talon at him. The revolver blocked the blow, and Squall retaliated by swinging his leg out, kicking the side of my bike. I wobbled erratically, trying to regain my balance. Squall moved in for the kill, but I managed to balance myself in time to block the attack. Our gunblades locked, we tried to overpower one another, putting all the strength we had for our fighting arms into the effort to beat the foe. Our clash came to an end, however, when I realized that we were headed right for the pick-up truck that my comrades were riding in. I grunted, forfeiting to engagement for the moment to swerve around the truck. Squall did the same, only his path led him right into Cloud, who swung the Buster Sword and Squall's bike, taking off the front tire. I watched absently as Squall leapt off the bike, before it crashed through the barrier. I have a feeling I'll meet him again at some point, hopefully under circumstances where we won't try to kill each other.

After Squall, nothing unusual (if what we were doing called be considered usual) occurred. At least, not till we neared the end of the highway. Behind us, a large machine came speeding up. It almost knocked Cloud off his bike, and then tried to run me over. I didn't stand by, twiddling my thumbs for the insult, and took up a position to one side, while Cloud moved to the other side. Both of us took a few turns at hacking at this large piece of junk, decelerating whenever it tried to smear us against the highway barrier. Barret and Red helped out as well, Red using his fire Materia, and Barret shooting at the thing. Eventually, the large motorised rust bucket started to cough smoke (not literary, of course) and ground to a halt. Not a moment too soon, since the end of the highway was just around the corner. Everybody ground to a stop.

I dismounted my bike and walked up to the edge of the highway. Not terribly far a drop, though if we went down, there'd be no coming back up. Barret hopped out of the truck and sighed.

"Well, what do we do now?" He asked, looking back the way we came.

Cloud narrowed his eyes, joining me at the edge of the highway.

"Sephiroth is alive. I…I have to settle the score." The mercenary declared.

"And that'll save the Planet?" Barret asked without hesitation.

Cloud paused.

"Seems like it." He finally relented.

"Awright, I'm going!" Barret announced.

"I'll go to." Aeris claimed. She hesitated as we all turned to look at her. "I have things I want to find out."

"About the Ancients?" Cloud questioned.

"...Many things." Aeris relented after a few seconds.

"I guess this is goodbye Midgar." Tifa spoke up, looking optimistic.

I turned towards the Shinra Tower, and gave it a mock salute.

"Farewell, foul Midgar. We hardly knew ye, and we hardly **wanted** to know ye."

The others chuckled softly, before walking towards a crane, which offered a way down without potentially hurting ourselves. It was a simple matter to shimmy down the rope, and land in front of a gate that offered entrance, and exit from the rotting hell hole's slums. As I landed on the ground, I saw something that I hadn't seen for days, not since coming here. In the distance, the sun was rising. I hadn't noticed that I hadn't seen the sun in all my time in Midgar, what with us mostly being under the plate.

"Right." Cloud got our attention. "Let's go."

Barret started shadow boxing, for some reason.

"We need a group leader for our journey. 'Course only me could be the leader." Barret announced.

I grinned at the display of ego. And guess what? He's about to get shot right down.

"You think so…?" Tifa asked, putting a hand on Cloud's shoulder.

"It would have to be Cloud." Aeris declared, resting a hand on Cloud's other shoulder.

Barret looked shocked briefly, before slouching over, looking decidedly depressed.

"Fuck." He muttered, before standing upright. "Awright. Go Northeast to a town called Kalm. If something happens, we'll meet up there. 'Sides, we can't have 5 people strolling down the fields. It's too dangerous. Split us into 2 parties…"

Cloud looked dazed for a moment before pointing at me.

"You, with me." He commanded.

I rolled my eyes and stood next to him, waiting for the third member of our trio to be chosen. I noticed Cloud's eyes flicking over everyone, in a peculiar pattern.

"Are you choosing with 'eanie meanie'?" I asked, eyebrow ridges raised.

Cloud looked at me, blushing slightly.

"Yes." He admitted.

I sighed and made the choice for him.

"Red, come with us."

Red plodded over to us, and stood by my side as we looked at the other three.

"Remember, meet at Kalm!" Barret reminded us. "Spike, make sure he drags his skinny ass there in one piece, awright?"

"Sure." I nodded, following Cloud and Red.

We've left Midgar, but our fights not over yet. This is just the beginning.


	13. The Nibelheim Incident

Chapter 12: The Nibelheim Incident

"It's peaceful." Red noted.

"It's quiet." Cloud added.

"It's calm." I concluded.

The three of us looked at each other, before nodding in agreement.

"It's Kalm." We agreed.

Indeed, the town of Kalm was all three of those things that we had said. It was a peaceful looking town, with not a sound to be heard, but the birds in the sky. Strange, considering how close we are to Midgar. This town also had unpolluted air, so I've been breathing much better since getting here. I hadn't realized just how sore my throat had been, breathing in all that polluted air. I tell you, after several days in Midgar, you'll love being able to breath clean air.

"Let's go in the inn." Red advised. "I can smell the others already there."

Cloud nodded, and walked in without a word. Me and Nanaki followed him in. Inside, the clerk informed us that our friends were indeed waiting for us upstairs. Cloud thanked the clerk and walked upstairs, only to have Barret yell at us, in that loud, booming voice of his.

"Yo man, you're late!"

Cloud shrugged, looking a little sheepish.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." He apologized.

"Guess everyone's here now." Aeris said, taking a quick head count.

"So let's hear your story…" Barret said to Cloud "…You know, the one about Sephiroth and the crisis facing the planet. Let's hear it all."

I don't know what scared me more, the pleading tone Barret had when he said that, or the fact that he looked like a little kid waiting for his bedtime story. Cloud paused, looking at Barret strangely, but sighed and started anyway.

"I used to want to be like Sephiroth so I joined SOLDIER." Cloud began. "After working with Sephiroth on several missions, we became friends."

"You call that a friend?" Barret interrupted.

"Yeah, well…" Cloud hesitated, searching for the right words. "…He's older than me, and he hardly ever talked about himself. So I guess you'd call him a war buddy, We trusted each other. Until one day…"

"One day?" Aeris inquired.

"After the war it was SOLDIER's duty to put down any resistance against the Shinra. ……that was 5 years ago. I was 16……"

* * *

**Cloud stood up from the box that was being used as the seat off the soldiers in the back of the truck. He took a couple of steps one way, then the other, obviously restless. He sighed, looking around the truck, and his eyes landed on his target. A young blond trooper, the same rank as those that Spike would dub 'moans' years from now. Not that Cloud knew that, as he advanced on the hapless trooper.**

"**It sure is raining hard." Cloud commented. "Hey, how are you holding up?"**

"**I'm alright." The trooper groaned.**

"**I wouldn't know." Cloud admitted. "I've never had motion sickness."**

**Cloud stepped away from the trooper and started to do some light exercises, before focusing on his next victim.**

"**Everything ok?" Cloud asked.**

**The trooper opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as a deep voice spoke up.**

"**Hey. Settle down." Sephiroth ordered the swordsman.**

"**They gave me some new Materia." Cloud grinned, a grin he wouldn't wear years from now. "I can't wait to use it."**

"**Just like a kid." Sephiroth sighed.**

"**You going to brief us about this mission." Cloud ignored the remark.**

**Sephiroth waited for all three of his subordinates focused on him before starting.**

"**This isn't a typical mission." The silver haired swordsman began.**

"**Good!" Cloud interrupted.**

**Sephiroth rolled his eyes, before humouring the younger SOLDIER.**

"**Why do you say that?"**

"**I joined SOLDIER so I could be like you." Cloud claimed. "But by the time I made First class, the war was already over. My big hopes of becoming a hero like you ended with the war. That's why I always sign up whenever there's a big mission. Kind of a way to prove myself. Say, how do you feel, MISTER Sephiroth?"**

"**I thought you wanted a briefing?" Sephiroth interrupted Cloud's rant. "Our mission is to investigate an old Mako reactor. There have been reports of it malfunctioning, and producing brutal creatures. Then, we'll locate the problem and neutralize it."**

"**Brutal creatures?" Cloud asked with a childlike wonder at the thought. "Where?"**

"**The Mako Reactor at Nibelheim." Sephiroth sighed again.**

**Cloud stopped his pacing and stared at Sephiroth, wide-eyed. The blond soldier also put his undivided attention on the silver haired commander, though Cloud couldn't guess why.**

"**Nibelheim…" Cloud repeated, slowly. "That's where I'm from."**

"**Hmm…hometown…" The legend pondered aloud.**

**Before their conversation could continue, a loud bang was heard from the outside off the vehicle, followed the truck shaking for a few brief seconds, sending Cloud and the two grunts to the floor. The driver turned to look at the passengers, looking panicked.**

"**Sir …s, something strange just crashed into our truck!" he stammered.**

"**That would be our monster." Sephiroth sighed, unsheathing the Masamune.**

**Cloud grabbed the Buster Sword and followed his superior officer out of the truck. There, they stood before the monster, a large creature of the dragon variety. The silver haired man grunted and ran at the dragon, delivering a vicious slash at its chest, before hopping back to stand with Cloud.**

**Cloud grit his teeth and charged, but the dragon swung its tail at Cloud, knocking him back, into the side of the truck, denting it. Sephiroth rolled his eyes and cast full life, reviving the fallen Cloud. Cloud gasped as his formally dead body drew breath again. He rose to his feet, still trying to shake off the numbing feeling that always came with being dead, no matter how long it was. He grabbed his sword from where it had fallen.**

**The dragon drew a deep breath, before releasing it, in the form of fire, at Sephiroth. Sephiroth swung the Masamune in an uppercut, through the fire, seemingly splitting through the fire as it suddenly cut off and coiled to either side of the swordsman. Once the dragon stopped the fiery onslaught, Sephiroth charged at the dragon for the second time. The dragon attempted to do to Sephiroth as it had Cloud and tail whip him, but the SOLDIER leapt over the tail in a flip and swung the Masamune through the beast's tail, slicing it from the rest of the body. Sephiroth landed on his left foot, which he spun on, with the grace of a dancer, slicing through the dragon's ribs and piercing its lung. Once he had finished a full 180 degree rotation, Sephiroth leapt up, so that he was level with the dragon's head, and spun in mid-air, first kicking the creature's face, twisting its head around, and then slicing his sword through the dragon's vulnerable neck. The silver haired swordsman landed, with all the grace of a cat, and hopped back to where Cloud had been watching. The dragon struggled for a few seconds, before succumbing to death.**

**

* * *

**

"Sephiroth's strength is unreal." Cloud concluded. "He is far stronger in reality then any story you might have heard about him."

"The opposite of most stories then." I muttered. "Most of the time, the stories are an exaggeration... sounds like a real charming fellow."

"So... where do you come into it?" Aeris asked.

"Me? I was mesmerised by the way Sephiroth fought." Cloud answered.

There was a brief pause, before Cloud continued.

"And then we reached Nibelheim..."

* * *

"**How does it feel?" Sephiroth asked. "It's your first time back to your hometown in a long time, right? So how does it feel? I wouldn't know because I don't have a hometown…"**

**Cloud frowned at the explanation for asking the question.**

"**Ummm…how 'bout your parents?" Cloud queried.**

"**My mother is Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father…" here, Sephiroth paused, before waving his hand dismissively. "What does it matter…? All right, let's go."**

**

* * *

**

"Yo wait a minute!" Barret interrupted. "Isn't that, um…? The name of Sephiroth's mother… I remember Jenova. That's that damn headless spook livin' in the Shinra building."

"You mean the deformed the deformed thing with an eye on its breast?" I asked sarcastically."

"That's right." Cloud nodded.

"Barret, would you please let us hear what Cloud has to say? You can ask questions later." Tifa scowled at the big man.

"Tifa, I was only……" Barret tried to defend himself.

"Okay Cloud, continue." Tifa told Cloud, ignoring Barret.

"It's a reunion of childhood pals!" Aeris guessed.

"I was really surprised with Tifa." Cloud admitted.

* * *

**Cloud, Sephiroth and the two troopers walked into the town. Everything was still, not a sound to be heard.**

"The town was quiet. Everybody must be staying in their housed, afraid to come out because of the monsters. No, maybe they're afraid of us…" Cloud told us.

"**We leave for the reactor at dawn." Sephiroth informed the team. "Make sure you get to sleep early. All we need is one lookout, so you others, get some rest. Oh, that's right… You may visit your family and friends."**

**Cloud watched as Sephiroth and the two grunts walked into the the inn. Sighing, he moved towards the man who had walked out of the general store, holding a camera. Cloud frowned at the man, trying to recognize him. The man paused, looking at Cloud, confusion written on his features.**

"**Cloud?" The photographer asked with recognition evident in his voice. **

**Cloud nodded, still trying to remember the name of the man before him. Nibelheim being such a small town, everyone was usually on a first name basis with each other, and at the very least knew each others names, since Cloud hadn't been on a first name basis with anyone but Tifa.**

"**I don't blame you if you don't remember me." The photographer admitted. "We never got along very well. Is it true that Sephiroth is here?"**

"**You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see him." Cloud told the man.**

**The photographer groaned in annoyance.**

"**Oh well."**

**The man walked back into the shop, leaving Cloud scratching his head, still trying to figure out who the character was. He looked towards his old home, pondering whether or not to go in and visit his mom. Grunting, he moved towards what was once his home, but changed destination halfway there and entered the larger house next to it.**

"Cloud, you went into my home?" Tifa asked, surprised.

"Yea, I thought you'd be home." Cloud answered sheepishly.

**Inside, Cloud called out for Tifa a couple of time, but there was no answer. Shrugging, he walked up the stairs, remembering where Tifa's room once was. He entered the room that he was certain was Tifa's...**

"You went in my room?" Tifa's voice was slightly indignant this time.

"Yes, like I said, I thought you'd be home." Cloud defended himself.

"What else did you do while there? Play my piano?" Tifa cried out.

"...Yes."

Tifa huffed, and crossed her arms.

"Jeez, Cloud. You sure made yourself at home in her house." I laughed. "You sure you were a SOLDIER? You seem more like a STALKER to me."

"...Moving on..."

**Cloud left Tifa's house, tired of waiting for her to get home, and finally went into his old home. The memories of the place engulfed him as he stepped through the door. There, by the cooker, was his mother. The smell of apple pie entered his nostrils, and he sighed.**

Cloud paused here, eyes lost in memory.

"Let's skip this part." He declared.

"Hey, I wanna hear this."

"Happy reunion, tearful reunion, I wanna know."

"Come on... please."

Yes, we were all so sad, we had to hear about Cloud's reunion with his mother. But Cloud crossed his arms and glared at us until we relented.

"She has nothing to do with this." He stated, before continuing, leaving out his reunion.

**Cloud left his mother's home, sighing for the umpteenth time since returning. This wasn't the homecoming he'd pictured, he didn't know what it was he wanted, but this wasn't it. Shrugging to himself, he started towards the inn. He'd sleep there for the night. He'd had enough motherly love for a lifetime. He walked into the inn, and paused at the sight of Sephiroth talking to a stranger. He took a couple of steps closer and examined the strange man.**

**He had short, black hair, and stubble across his chin. He was dressed in urban camouflage pants, a black t-shirt and had a most interesting weapon at his side. It was a cross between a sword and a gun. Cloud found himself making faces at the thought of the weapon, it'd never work. He paused at the sight of the stranger's eyes though. Mako eyes.**

"**I'll leave everything to you then." The stranger said, shaking a bemused Sephiroth's hands. "No hard feelings about leaving the force. I have a kid to raise, and I'd rather see him grow then only visit him once every other year."**

"**No hard feelings." Sephiroth repeated.**

**The Mako eyed stranger turned to leave, but paused at Cloud.**

"**I swear they get younger every time I see them." He muttered.**

"**Who does?" Cloud inquired.**

"**You SOLDIER recruits. It's like every time I see a SOLDIER, they're younger then the last. Age?"**

"**Erg... 16." Cloud stammered.**

**The stranger's eyes narrowed.**

"**As I thought. They've lowered the age requirement. When I was there, you didn't become a SOLDIER until you were 21."**

**Cloud shrugged, moving aside so that the stranger could pass. The stranger grunted, leaving the inn. The blond swordsman moved up the stairs, following Sephiroth. Up the stairs, Cloud found the General staring out of a window, eyes glazed over.**

"**What are you looking at?" Cloud asked, looking at the view that had caught Sephiroth's attention so.**

"**This scenery…… I feel like I know this place……" Sephiroth murmured softly, before tearing his attention from the window and onto Cloud. "…We have an early start tomorrow. You should get some sleep soon."**

**Cloud nodded, moving into the room where the group would be sleeping.**

**The next morning, Cloud ran towards the crowd, which he knew had Sephiroth in the middle of. Pushing his way through the crowd, Cloud caught up with Sephiroth, who was looking bored of being the groups main interest.**

**

* * *

**

**"Once the guide gets here, we're moving out." Sephiroth told Cloud.**

**At that point, a very important looking man pushed his way to the front of the crowd and stood before Sephiroth.**

"**Listen to me, Sephiroth. In case something happens…"**

"**Trust me." The silver haired man interrupted, with a roll of his eyes.**

**Again, someone pushed their way through the crowd, but this time, the someone pouted at the man.**

"**I'll be all right, Dad! I have two men from SOLDIER with me." She said. Before turning to the SOLDIERS. "I'm Tifa. Nice to meet you."**

"**Tifa!" Cloud exclaimed. "You're the guide?"**

"**That's right." Tifa grinned. "I just happen to be the number one guide in this town."**

"**It's too dangerous!" Cloud claimed. "I can't involve you in something like this!"**

"**Then there's no problem if you protect her." Sephiroth snapped. "…Lets go."**

**Yet again, someone shoved their way through the crowd, this time it was the photographer from the previous day.**

"**Ummm…Mr. Sephiroth! Please let me take one picture for a memento! Tifa, can you ask him for me too…?" The camera man begged.**

**Sephiroth rolled his eyes, and stood alongside Cloud and Tifa. The photographer grinned and lifted his camera.**

"**Cheeeeese!"**

**The group was momentarily blinded, as the flash went off. The man hesitated a moment, before grinning again.**

"**Great, thank you!" He exclaimed. "I'll give each of you a copy once I get it developed!"**

**All distractions over with, Sephiroth started towards Mount Nibel, without a word. Cloud and Tifa exchanged silent glances before following him.**

**Two hours later, and they were almost to the reactor. Cloud had learnt early on that there was very little point even considering drawing his sword at the constant monster attacks, because all Sephiroth ever had to do was flick his wrist at the monsters, and they all died. Cloud could honestly say that he never actually saw the Masamune leave its sheath, Sephiroth was drawing and then sheathing it so fast.**

**Eventually, the group came up to a long rope bridge. Cloud eyed the bridge wearily, not trusting the aged ropes and wooden planks.**

"**It gets harder from here." Tifa warned the group. "Follow me."**

**Tifa started to walk across the bridge, those she was guiding marching behind her. They were halfway across the bridge when a loud snapping sound caught their attention.**

"**Uh..." Tifa frowned, wondering what had made the sound, before her eyes widened. "The bridge!"**

**Cloud tried to grab Tifa as she slid off the side of the bridge. He missed, and she screamed as she fell. Cloud and Sephiroth both grabbed onto the rope that hadn't snapped, eager to avoid sharing the same fate as their guide and the two troopers who had accompanied them. It was all for naught, however, as the second rope snapped promptly after, plunging them into the darkness.**

**Cloud landed in a roll, bringing himself back to his feet. Cautiously, he scanned the area, only relaxing once he was certain there were no monsters around. He turned around at the sound of footstep and found Sephiroth, looking like nothing had happened, marching towards him, a trooper and Tifa in tow.**

"**Everyone seems to be alright." Sephiroth declared, once he had checked the area. He turned to Tifa. "Can we get back to where we were?"**

"**These caves are intertwined, just like an ant farm." Tifa informed him. "Oh, and Sephiroth... There seems to be one person missing."**

"**It may sound cold, but we've got no time to search for him." Sephiroth told her. "We can't go back now, so we must go on."**

**The group entered the entrance to the cave that was nearby, and Tifa stopped in wonder.**

"**What's this?" Cloud asked, noticing the radiant glow that seemed to come from the very walls.**

"**A mysteriously coloured cave..." Tifa thought aloud.**

"**It must be the Mako energy." Sephiroth informed them. "This mountain is especially abundant in it. That's why the Mako Reactor was built here."**

**At an unspoken order, the group started travelling again, the trooper using a compass to make sure that they were headed in the right direction, since even Tifa didn't know much about the caves. After half an hour of walking, they entered a strange clearing.**

"**...And what's this?" Cloud asked, at the strange sight.**

"**A Mako fountain." Sephiroth claimed, looking intently at the fountain. "It's a miracle of nature."**

"**It's so beautiful…" Tifa cooed, running up to the fountain. "If the Mako Reactor continues to suck up the energy, this fountain will dry up too…"**

"**Materia." Sephiroth began. "When you condense Mako energy, Materia is produced. It's very rare to be able to see Materia in its natural state."**

"**By the way…" Cloud spoke up, curiously. "Why is it that when you use Materia you can also use magic too?"**

"**You're in SOLDIER and didn't even know that?" Sephiroth started. "…the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the planet calling up magic……or so they say."**

"**Magic…" Cloud thought aloud, awe in his voice. "…A mysterious power…"**

**Sephiroth started laughing at Cloud's remark, looking amused.**

"**Did I say something funny?" Cloud asked, confused."**

"**A man once told me never to use an unscientific term such as mysterious power! It shouldn't even be called 'magic'! I still remember how angry he was." Sephiroth explained.**

"**Who was that?" Cloud pondered.**

"**Hojo of Shinra, Inc." The silver haired man answered. "An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist. He was a walking mass of complexes."**

"**A Mako fountain." Tifa murmured, ignoring the talk between the two SOLDIERS. "So this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is."**

**After a couple more minutes resting in the clearing, the General started to make them move again. This time, the travelling only took a quarter of an hour, when they finally exited the cave and stood before the Mako Reactor.**

"**We finally made it." Tifa cheered. "We sure took the long way through."**

"**Tifa, you wait here." Cloud ordered.**

"**I'm going inside too!" Tifa protested, glaring at Cloud. "I wanna see!"**

"**Only authorized people are allowed in." The silver haired swordsman said, with an air of finality. "This place is full of Shinra's industrial secrets."**

"**But..." Tifa started to protest.**

"**Take care of the lady." Sephiroth ordered the trooper, who saluted and took up a position that blocked the girl from entering the building.**

"**Mm, man!" Tifa pouted, before glaring at the trooper, who gulped. "Better take real good care of me then!"**

**Inside the reactor, Cloud followed Sephiroth through the building, looking around at all the machinery at work. After a couple of minutes, the pair arrived in a strange room full of pods. Cloud moved to the door at the top of a set of stairs, and almost concussed himself, walking into the door, which didn't open at his push. He staggered back, rubbing his head furiously, and caught sight of the sign above the door.**

"**This is…… Jenova, right?" Cloud queried. "The lock won't open…"**

**Sephiroth ignored Cloud and crouched beside one of the pods. A brief scan of the pipe work revealed the source of the problem.**

"**This is the reason for the malfunction." The General claimed, pointing at the part in question. "This part is broken. Cloud, close the valve."**

**Cloud rushed to the valve and twisted it, sealing it.**

"**Why did it break…?" Sephiroth pondered, reaching up and looking inside on of the pods. "…Now I see, Hojo. But, even doing this, will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast. This is a system that condenses and freezes the Mako energy…that is, when it's working correctly. Now…what does Mako energy became when it's further condensed?"**

"**Uh, ummm……" Cloud quickly realized that the last question hadn't been rhetorical. "Oh yeah! It becomes a Materia" **

"**Right, normally." Sephiroth agreed. "But Hojo put something else in there. …Take a look. Look through the window."**

**Cloud frowned and pulled himself up to peer through the small window on the side of the pod. Inside, he saw a strange monster unlike any he'd ever seen before, be it in the textbooks or on the field. The blond gasped, dropping onto his rear.**

"**Wh…what is this?" Cloud stammered.**

"**Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered with Mako." Sephiroth continued, ignoring the question. "You're different from the others, but still human. But, what are they? They've been exposed to a high degree of Mako, far more than you."**

"…**Is this some kind of monster?"**

"**Exactly." The General nodded. "And it's Hojo of Shinra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by Mako energy. That's what these monsters really are."**

"**Normal members of SOLDIER?" Cloud wondered. "You mean you're different? H…hey, Sephiroth!"**

"**N…no…… …Was I?" Sephiroth grabbed his head, looking like he had a migraine.**

**Cloud attempted to approach the General but was forced to leap down the stairs as Sephiroth unsheathed the Masamune and slashed it around, wildly.**

"…**Was I created this way too? Am I the same as all these monsters……" Sephiroth grit his teeth, glaring into space at the questions that started to plaque his mind.**

"**Sephiroth." Cloud called out.**

"**You saw it! All of them…were humans…" Sephiroth snarled at Cloud.**

"**Humans? No way!" Cloud gasped.**

"…**I've always felt since I was small… That I was different from the others." Sephiroth told Cloud. "Special, in some way. But…not like this…"**

**Cloud opened his mouth to talk, to try and calm Sephiroth down, but the pod that Cloud had sealed the valve for started shaking. Cloud stepped back, uncertain of this new development. After a few brief seconds, the pod exploded, and in its place was the monster that had been inside it. Cloud pulled out his sword, gulping.**

**

* * *

**

"Damn, Shinra! The more I hear, the more I hate 'em!" Barret growled, shaking his gun-arm.

"Who would have ever thought the Mako Reactor held a secret like that." Tifa said.

"That would seem to explain the increase in the number of monsters recently." Red mused. "I think we should listen carefully to Cloud. Don't you think so Barret?"

"Keep talking!" Barret ordered Cloud, after a brief pause.

"Tifa… You were waiting outside then?" Aeris asked.

"She would be." I pointed out. "After the fuss she made of wanting to go in, I doubt she'd just walk back home."

Tifa nodded.

"We returned to Nibelheim." Cloud continued his story. "Sephiroth confined himself at the inn. He didn't even try to talk to me."

"Then all of a sudden he just disappeared, right?" Tifa guessed.

"We found him inside the biggest building in Nibelheim." Cloud said.

"The villagers used to call it Shinra mansion." Tifa informed us.

"Long ago, people from Shinra used to live in that mansion…" Cloud explained.

* * *

**Cloud walked up to the gates of the mansion, feeling the eyes of the entire town gazing upon him. He pushed open the gates and entered the building. The interior was dark and dusty; the whole building had an aura of old age about it. He looked up, sharply, hearing heavy footsteps. Upstairs.**

**Cloud ran up the stairs, and moved in the direction that heard the footsteps coming from. He found the surviving trooper from the trek over the mountain, blond hair poking out from under the helmet.**

"**Sir, he went into that room." The trooper pointed.**

"**Right." Cloud nodded, and entered the room.**

**The room was vacant of all but dust. Cloud spied another door and walked through it, before stopping. The room was empty. Not even another door to leave from. There wasn't even a window that the General could have climbed out of. Cloud was about to backtrack when he noticed the out of place stonework in the corner. The SOLDIER walked up to the stonework and felt a drought. Frowning, Cloud pushed against the stone and it swung open, revealing a spiralling staircase. Shrugging mentally, Cloud took a wild guess that this was where Sephiroth had vanished to and started to go down the stairs.**

**At the bottom, he shook away the bad vibes he felt from the tunnel he found himself in and started walking towards the other end of the tunnel, towards the door, which had a light coming from underneath. It didn't take Cloud long to get to the door, which he opened and found himself inside a large library. He spotted Sephiroth standing to one side, book in hand.**

"…**an organism that was apparently dead, was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum." Sephiroth read out loud. "Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova… X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient …X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor I approved for use… My mother's name is Jenova… Jenova Project… Is this just a coincidence? Professor Gast… Why didn't you tell me anything? …Why did you die?"**

**Cloud moved towards the General, who waved his hand at Cloud in a dismissive gesture.**

"**Leave me be." Was all Sephiroth said.**

"He just kept reading and reading, for hours. All attempts at communicating with him were dismissed." Cloud told us. "But then..."

**Seven hours later, Cloud woke up, breathing heavily. For a brief second, he hoped that the last day had been a bad dream, but one look at his surroundings revealed that hope to be in vain. He was still in the Shinra mansion. The blond shot up, sensing that something wasn't right. All the little sounds in the mansion, like the rattling of the windows as the wind blew against them, to the floorboard creaking when the trooper in the other room shifted his weight, had stopped. It was like time itself had slowed down. Something was wrong; he couldn't shake the feeling from his body. Slowly, he got out of the bed and moved to the room with the secret passage.**

**The trooper was still awake, and upon Cloud's entry, gave a half hearted salute, not even bothering to get up from the chair.**

"**He's still down there, sir." The trooper informed him.**

**Cloud nodded and walked down the spiral staircase and entered the library. Inside, he almost turned back, there was something about the room that scared him. Shaking off the sensation, Cloud walked up to the desk that Sephiroth sat behind. When Sephiroth caught sight of Cloud, he burst into laughter, a deep maniacal laughter that sent shivers down Cloud's spine.**

"**Who is it?" The General asked. "Hmph…traitor."**

"**Traitor?" Cloud repeated, confused.**

"**You ignorant traitor." Sephiroth sneered. "I'll tell you. This was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on… At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But, those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving back one whit in return! Those are your ancestors."**

"**Sephiroth..." Cloud tried to get the silver haired man's attention.**

"**Long ago, disaster struck this planet." Sephiroth continued. "Your ancestors escaped… They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."**

"**What does that have to do with you?" Cloud interrupted.**

"**Don't you get it?" The General asked, angrily. "An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum of 2000 years ago. The Jenova Project. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients……no, the Cetra! …I am the one that was produced."**

"**Pr-produced?" Cloud stuttered, shocked.**

"**Yes." Sephiroth nodded. "Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me."**

"**How…how did he…? Se…Sephiroth?" Cloud asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.**

"**Out of my way. I'm going to see my mother." Sephiroth snapped, jumping up and shoving Cloud aside. **

**Cloud flew into the bookshelf and grunted as all the books fell on him. He stood up, ignoring the bruises that were forming. The General had already gone. Cloud, feeling the sense of wrongness more now, to the point where he couldn't just ignore it, ran. Up the stairs, he barely noticed that the trooper was missing. He kicked open the doors to the Shinra Mansion and gasped and the rush of heat that slammed into him. His eyes widened at the sight which greeted him.**

**Nibelheim, was in flames.**

**Cloud charged out the mansions courtyard and stopped before two men, both of whom he'd seen in the inn. One was the ex-SOLDIER that he'd met. The other was a martial artist, if the clothing was any hint. Cloud had seen him in the inn, but hadn't spoken to him. The former SOLDIER pulled out his gun-sword and pointed it at him, while the martial artist tensed.**

"**Hey it's you! You're still sane, right?" The martial artist asked.**

"**Ya." Cloud shouted, to be heard over the roar of the fire.**

"**Then come over here and help us!" The ex-SOLDIER ordered. "I'll check this house. Zangan, check the mayor's house. You check that one over there!"**

"**Right, Shepard." Zangan nodded, running to check the house next to Cloud's.**

**Shepard fought against the flames and entered the shop, while Cloud did likewise and checked his mother's home. Inside was a very visual representation of Hell.**

"**MOM!" Cloud shouted, his throat already getting sore from the heat. "MOM! ARE YOU HERE!"**

**Before he could advance any further into the home, the ceiling collapsed, forcing Cloud to exit the house or be killed. Outside, he fought against the tears that threatened to spill. Why was this happening?**

"**Terrible..."He muttered. "Sephiroth... This is too terrible."**

**The sounds of a struggle caught his attention, and Cloud turned to witness Sephiroth brutally murder a group of villagers. The General looked up and smirked at the younger SOLDIER. Cloud found he couldn't tear his eyes from Sephiroth's, and found himself getting lost in the emerald orbs, which were dancing in madness. Cloud didn't have to look away, however, because Sephiroth turned and marched out of the town, towards the mountain. The general's last words rung in Cloud's ears, and he knew that Sephiroth was going to the reactor.**

**Cloud stood before the reactor, and pulled free his sword. He knew that he might not get through this and survive, but he was going to try. He stormed through the doors and moved towards the Jenova room, eyes dancing, searching for any sign of an ambush. Nothing so far. The blond reached the walkway to the room full of the pods and paused. In front of the doorway, Tifa was crying over the body of her father, the Masamune lying discarded beside them.**

"**Papa… Sephiroth? Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he? Sephiroth… SOLDIER… Mako Reactors… Shinra… Everything! I hate them all!" The girl declared, grabbing the katana.**

**Tifa ran into the next room, Cloud rushing in after her. Inside, he witnessed Sephiroth standing before the door that had been locked, their previous visit, arms spread out.**

"**Mother, I'm here to see you. Please, open this door." Sephiroth called out.**

"**How could you do that to papa and all the townspeople?" Tifa yelled, charging up the stairs, Masamune held out, ready to slash the SOLDIER.**

**Tifa reached Sephiroth's level and swung the katana. Sephiroth didn't react until the last moment, and caught her wrist, squeezing it at the joints. Tifa cried out in pain at his vice-like grip. The General gently plucked the sword from her grip and released her. For a moment, it looked like he planned on ignoring her, and he turned back to the now open door. He took one step inside, before twisting around and swinging the Masamune in a vicious uppercut, sending Tifa flying down the stairs, until she was at Cloud's feet. Sephiroth gave a soft chuckle, walking into the Jenova room.**

"…**You promised… You promised that you'd come……when I was in trouble…" Tifa struggled to say, looking up at Cloud.**

**Cloud sighed, blinking back the tears that threatened to come forth, and gently picked up the injured girl. He forced himself not to look at the long gash that covered Tifa's stomach, not trusting himself to keep his cool. He moved her to a spot out of the way and gently laid her down. He then turned his gaze to the room Sephiroth had vanished into and his eyes hardened. He walked into the room, expecting the worse. Inside, he found Sephiroth standing before a large statue.**

"**Mother, let's take this planet back together. I've thought of a great idea. Let's go to the Promised Land." Sephiroth boomed.**

"**Sephiroth… My family! My hometown! How could you do this to them?" Cloud demanded to know.**

"**They've come again, mother." Sephiroth laughed. "With her superior power, knowledge, and magic, Mother was destined to become the ruler of the Planet."**

**Sephiroth advanced towards the statue and grabbed it.**

**  
"But they… Those worthless creatures are stealing the Planet from Mother. But now I'm here with you so don't worry."**

**Sephiroth then pulled, yanking the statue, or machine, as Cloud could now see, from its place. The General tossed it aside, and looked at what the machine had been covering. There, inside a stasis pod, was Jenova.**

"**What about MY sadness?" Cloud shouted. "My family…friends… The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me? It's the same as your sadness!"**

"**My sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet. I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What am I supposed to be sad about?" Sephiroth answered.**

"**Sephiroth… I trusted you… No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!"**

**Both swordsmen readied their weapons, and stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first strike.**

**

* * *

**

"And that's the end of my story." Cloud finished, looking somewhat sheepish.

"Wait a damn minute! Ain't there more?" Barret asked, sounding like a little kid who'd just been told that Santa wasn't real.

"I don't remember." Cloud admitted.

"What happened to Sephiroth?" Aeris asked.

"In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him." Cloud told her.

"Official records state Sephiroth is dead." Tifa claimed. "I read it in the newspaper."

"Shinra, Inc. owns the paper, so you can't rely on that information." Aeris reminded her.

"I want to know the truth. I wanted to know what happened then. I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?" Cloud asked, rhetorically.

"Count what blessings you have." I murmured. "You're alive, ain't that good enough?"

"I'm alive, too." Tifa reminded him, something that made me roll my eyes.

"Seem like a lot of this doesn't make sense." Aeris grumbled. "What about Jenova? It was in the Shinra building, right?"

"Shinra shipped it from Nibelheim to Midgar." Cloud said.

"Did someone else carry it out after that? It was missing from the Shinra building." Aeris pointed out.

"Sephiroth?" Tifa wondered.

"Damn! Don't none of this make sense!" Barret exclaimed. "I'm going, going, going, gone! And I'm leavin' the thinkin' to you! Yo, Cloud! Let's get a move on!"

"Right." Cloud nodded.

"Yo, c'mon! Let's go!" Barret boomed out, as he walked down the stairs.

"Oh, brother..." Cloud moaned, resting his face in his palm.

"Cloud…? How bad was I when Sephiroth cut me?" Tifa asked.

"I thought you were a goner... I was really sad." Cloud told her.

Tifa was silent for a moment, head bowed.

"I… The Ancients… Cetra…… Jenova… Sephiroth and myself…" Aeris mumbled to herself as she walked down the stairs.

"Let's go." Tifa said, quietly. "Barret's waiting."

With those words, both Cloud and Tifa walked down the stairs.

"What a fascinating story…" Red mused, aloud.

"Indeed. Better then half the books I've read in my lifetime." I agreed.

Both of us stood up and stretched, before following the others down to the lobby area.

"Spike. What's your PHS number?" Cloud spoke up, before I was even down the stairs.

Sighing, I pulled out my mobile and checked the number that it answered to. Cloud responded by doing the same with his new phone, only he also gave out the numbers of the rest of AVALANCHE's PHSes.

"Right, you and Red will be with Barret. Meet the rest of us at the Chocobo Farm. It's to the east, near the cost." Cloud said, before leaving with the two girls.

"Is it just me, or is that a tad suspicious?" I stage whispered to Red and Barret.

"At least it proves he's straight." Barret grunted.

I sniggered at the remark, before doing some mental planning.

"Right... we'll leave once I've replaced my coat." I grinned.


	14. Waltz de Chocobo

Chapter 13: Waltz de Chocobo

"Five hundred gil." The lady repeated, her voice getting even more aggressive.

I glared at the sales woman in anger. How the hell does a replacement coat cost 500 gil. I would have thought one hundred, if the leather was extremely good quality (shows how much I know about clothing), but this lady wants me to give her five times the amount I had anticipated.

"How does a coat cost five hundred gil?" I demanded. "It doesn't even have **sleeves**!"

"That's the reason it doesn't cost 750 gil." The saleswoman snapped back. "And we sell at half the price of stores in Junon, Midgar and the like."

"Then those other stores are ripping people off." I declared. "It ain't a tuxedo, I'm not asking for the snappy black suits that have become stereotypical of the Mafia, or the blue suits that the Turks are known for."

"This material does not come cheep!" She cried out. "Behemoth leather is **very **hard to come by."

That last sentence stopped my response short.

"**Behemoth** leather?" I asked, wide eyed.

"What did you think the coat was made out of?" The woman answered, indignant. "Chocobo hides? No, that coat is made from the finest Behemoth leathers you'll ever be likely to lay eyes on."

"Behemoth leathers?" I asked again, blinking. "Whose bright idea was it to hunt Behemoth's for clothing?"

"I dunno. Makes for fashionable wear though. Very popular with the rich kids."

My coat is made out of Behemoth leathers? I didn't even know that Behemoth hides were usable in that way.

"I thought Behemoths were a purplish blue?"

"And cows are black, white and spotty, yet you can get bright RED coats made from cow hides." Was the annoyed answer.

"But I was under the impression that Behemoths were dangerous..." I started, but was cut off.

"Hence the reason for Behemoth leather being the most expensive you'll find. The danger in getting the leather is the reason for the high prices. Do you honestly think that we'd sell such good quality leathers cheep, when they're so dangerous to obtain?"

"Ok, I'll take it." I sighed, pulling out my wallet and sliding the appropriate amount of cash.

My replacement coat, combined with the new t-shirt (the bullet didn't spare what was **under **the coat just because it had already cost me a small fortune) and belt pack to store future items in (I only have so many pockets here) made the total sum come to 550 gil. I still have a feeling I'm being ripped off here, but something told me I couldn't win this argument. Grunting, I slid off the old coat and tossed it to the side; let some poor sap think it was a shoddy product for sale, maybe file a law suit against this evil bitch. I had bought the t-shirt and belt pack at a different store, this particular shop was primarily a gothic store. I had put on the belt pack and t-shirt prior to entering, sliding the pack so that it was easily accessible, while still being out of the way, and so that it was hidden while I wear my coat.

I was about to put on my new coat, when a small something hit me in the face. I managed to catch it before it dropped to the floor and looked at it. A sewing kit. I shot a puzzled look at the woman how had thrown it at me.

"You adventurers. You never think ahead." The saleswoman accused. "You can't go replacing your clothing every time it gets a small rip. Learn to fix your own clothes."

"I don't sew." I growled.

"Learn. The kit is free of charge." She snarled, before grumbling something about kids these days.

Shaking my head, I stuffed the damn thing in my pack and exited the store. Maybe Aeris or Tifa would have a better use for it. Outside, I found Red waiting patiently for me.

"Is the war over?" He asked, rhetorically.

"Very funny." I grunted, aware that being a canine, his hearing probably allowed him to hear the argument. Or was that feline?

"Barret was just getting to the point where he was going to leave without you." Nanaki informed me, nodding his head in Barret's general direction.

"Let's go then." I sighed.

Both me and Red walked over to where Barret was pacing. When he caught sight of us, he growled something incoherent, and moved to intercept us.

"Yo finished satisfying your vanity?" Barret snarled at me.

"I ain't vain!" I protested. "Just because I'd rather not travel the world with a bullet hole in my clothing."

"Whatever!" Barret hissed, punching a random wall.

"Now what did the poor wall ever do to deserve your wraith?" I asked, sarcastically.

"It was a shade of red I happen to hate!" Barret answered, with a sadistic grin.

"I'll keep in mind not to wear clothing of that particular shade of red." I muttered, only half joking. "Anyway, it's time to get going. You else the others will get bored off waiting at the farm and bugger off without us."

Barret nodded. And it was thus, that we started out journey to the Chocobo Farm. Now, if this was a normal epic quest, we would face great peril, see many natural wonders, and lots of things like that. However, travelling to the Chocobo Farm was **not** and epic quest. It was a small part of one, and was barely worth mentioning, but I shall, just so you get the full story.

------

_Two days later_

_------- _

"Son of a BITCH!" I cried out, as yet another rock hit me in the face.

This is not what I signed up for. Battling monsters, that was what I signed up for. Well, if you want to be technical, I didn't actually sign up, Jade just hurled me in and said 'you're beating up Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII'. But that's just a technicality. I can't think of much that would stop me from just giving Cloud and co the finger and leaving the group. Jade never said I actually had to be a part of the group that killed Sephiroth, did she? I mean, what would stop me from returning home if Cloud beat up Sephiroth without my assistance? He'd probably be better of, too. But, of course, where's the fun in that? Besides, I wanna see how Sephiroth reacts to being called a mamma's boy. Hopefully, it won't include Sephiroth deciding I'm the threat to his plans, not Aeris.

Anyway, as I was saying, before I started of on my ramble. I'm here to battle Monsters, Shinra (despite the fact that they fall under the afore mentioned category) and Sephiroth (who also falls under the first category). Not, to have rocks thrown at me by these annoying little mutated squirrel wannabes. And what really annoys me, is that I seem to be the only target. Red hasn't had a single rock thrown at him, and the only two that headed towards Barret missed.

I've tried shooting at the squirrels, I've tried running and slashing at them. I've even cast fire at them whenever I saw the little blighters. No, the only thing that works is freezing the tops of their holes, sealing them with ice. But I can't catch every hole before one manages to lob a rock at me. So I have now got a face full of bruises. Not only that, but I'm hungry. The one snack I'd had left after two days of hiking, and one of the little bastards actually had the gall to run up to me and steal it as I was about to take a bite. And, according to Barret, and a map he'd picked up somewhere in Kalm, we were only halfway to the farm.

I'm not going to make it...

Seriously, I'll either die from all these rocks being thrown at me, or I'll starve to death, and shrivel into nothing, as my stomach tried to digest itself. You know, I wonder what toasted Zen, or whatever those creatures were called, would taste like. Knowing my luck, they'll be poisonous, and despite having a full stomach, I'll still be dead. And then I'd never get to call Sephiroth a mamma's boy. Or shoot him. Or get to do any of the cool stuff that'd happen later. 'Cos I'd be dead. We should have bought more food to eat for the trip whilst in Kalm. Barret had gotten some food, but he didn't get enough for two days of hiking, and I'm pretty certain we have yet more days of hiking to go before we get there.

I was cut out from my train of thought as yet another rock hit me in the face. I drew Talon and fired repeatedly in the general direction that the rock had come from, but as usual, the little hell spawn escaped my wraith. One of these days, I am going to come back here, and slaughter every one of those things. And then burn the bodies and then hurl the ashes into the sea.

"I wonder why they only seem to be throwing rocks at you..." Red mused aloud.

"Because they're racist against lizards." I answered, sarcastically.

"Maybe it's the fact that you're wearing the leather of a Behemoth for a coat. They smell an intruding monster, and so they're acting against the monster." Nanaki continued, ignoring me.

"You're blaming my coat for the rocks that have been thrown at me?"

"Only logical explanation." Red nodded.

"Even if it is the reason, I'm not throwing away my 500 gil coat." I declared, crossing my arms.

"You won't have to. The more you wear it, the more your scent covers it, so eventually; it won't smell like a Behemoth at all. It'd just take about another day or two of non-stop wearing it for that to happen."

"So by the time that has happened, it'd be pointless." I muttered, sourly.

"Not at all. Do you think some of the larger monsters will ignore the strange monster's scent? They'd probably be the ones to actually attack you."

"Joy." I grunted, as sarcastically as I could.

"You have my sympathies." Red told me, just as another rock made my forehead its landing zone.

Do I have a headache? Yes. Who wouldn't after being hit by so many rocks? I also have a black eye. Don't think that these creatures were sparing the eyes, I'm lucky it was only the one that came anywhere near my eye. I have a feeling that something as drastic as losing your eye can't be healed with any magic or elixirs. Why do you think Red is missing an eye?

"How much longer 'till we get there?" I asked Barret.

"Two days." He grunted, staring at the map. "If we don't get attacked."

"If anything attacks us, I know who to blame." I muttered.

He most likely tempted fate with that second sentence. Yup, now if we get attacked, it won't be because of my coat, but because Barret jinxed us. That makes me feel much better, knowing that I'm not the reason that we all die a horrible death at the hands of some creature that we couldn't kill... Who am I kidding? Of course it'd be my fault, because I smell like an intruding monster.

I was once again torn forcefully from my internal musings, but this time, not by a rock hitting me in the face, once again, but a pickup truck headed towards us. The driver inside must have noticed us, because he was slowing down. Me, and my two companions stood still, watching the truck come to a standstill. The window went down, and a man stuck his head out of the window, looking at us.

"Headed my way?" He asked.

"Depends on where you're headed." I replied, not trusting Barret to answer without somehow insulting the man.

"I'm headed to my farm, at the east coast." The man informed me.

"Then that'd be where we were going." I said.

"Ah, yes. The farm always was a handy resting place for travellers." The farmer grinned. "Want a lift?"

"That'd be great. Thanks." I nodded.

"I'm Chocobo Bill." He greeted, holding out his hand.

"Spike." I introduced myself, accepting his hand. "The big guy is Barret and my other companion is Red."

"I'll take it you're saying Red as a name, not stating the colour of his fur." Bill laughed. "Just hop on back, and we'll have you to my farm before the hour is up."

Best news I'd heard all day. No more hiking for however long it takes to for Cloud and the girls to get to the farm. Just rest, relaxation, and chocobos. With that thought in mind, I hopped up onto the back of the truck, followed closely by Barret and Red. I sat down on one of the crates and watched as the landscape started moving. The truck started driving, heading in the direction we had been hiking, taking us to our destination, without the hassle of rocks being thrown at me.

"So what exactly do you do at a chocobo farm?" I asked Bill. "Besides raising chocobos for riding?"

"We also farm their eggs." Bill answered. "Though we mostly just raise them and sell them to racers, and the occasional person who uses them to travel. We just struck a big deal with the Gold Saucer, so right now; we don't have any mature chocobos for sale."

"What kind of deal with Gold Saucer?" I questioned.

"They just bought all of our stock for double what they would normally have cost. We're just waiting for them to send someone to pick them up."

"I see. Business is good then?"

"Yup. You wouldn't think so, would ya? What with all these new cars an' all. But Chocobo racing is just about the most popular sport around at the moment."

Unable to think of anything else to say, I stretched and watched the scenery pass by. In almost no time at all, we arrived at Chocobo Bill's farm. It looked exactly as it did in the game, pen for the chocobos, barn, and the farmhouse. Bill parked the truck besides the barn and hopped out, putting on a straw hat.

"So, what're you up to, now that you've arrived?" Bill asked, turning to us.

We paused a moment, thinking. After a while, I spoke up.

"Seeing as you gave us a ride here, we're actually a couple of days ahead of our friends." I admitted to him. "You mentioned that this is a handy place for travellers, does that mean you do a bed and breakfast?"

"Yes." The farmer nodded. "It's not five-star, but its cheep. There won't be much for you lads to do. I doubt you'll want to help out around here."

"We'll find something or other to do." I assured the man. "Maybe you could help us though."

"How so?"

"Have you seen a strange man come by this way? He was most likely wearing black, and had silver hair."

Bill frowned a moment, pondering.

"Now that you mention it, there was someone like that headed towards the marsh."

"Where's that?" Barret asked.

"To the south. You have to cross the marsh to get to the Mythril Mines."

"Maybe we could investigate before Cloud gets here, try find out where Sephiroth might be going." Red mused.

"I wouldn't recommend you do that." Bill spoke up. "That man you mentioned? If he did try to cross the marsh, he's probably dead. The Midgar Zolems are in the marsh, they're the reason the mines were shut down."

I glanced at my watch, checking the time. It was getting late, so...

"We'll talk about this tomorrow." I declared. "If nothing else, we get some training against the smaller monsters."

"Yes, it is getting rather late." Bill agreed. "I'll go tell the wife to put on some dinner."

With those words, the farmer walked into the farmhouse. I turned to my comrades.

"So, tomorrow morning we check out this monster in the swamp?" I asked.

"Indeed, that would be a good idea." Red agreed. "We can try and find a way around it if need be."

"How hard can it be, anyway?" Barret put in. "We took out dat monster in Hojo's lab."

"Yea, it can't be too much harder then that, can it?" I said.

"So, first thing in the morning?"

"Sure."

-------

The next morning, after a simple breakfast of beans on toast, we headed out. The marsh was a three hour hike away, but after all the relaxing we got to do last night, it wasn't so bad. Plus we actually got to sleep on a nice comfortable bed, rather then the ground whilst inside a tent. So, it wasn't so bad. And Red was right, the monsters now ignored me, as my scent covered over the scent of Behemoth leather. No more rocks being thrown at me.

So, it was just the normal attacks by the normal enemies, all of which we easily beaten. In the end, me, Barret and Red made it a game to see just how many we each managed to kill by the end of the hike. I lost, though not by much. It was mostly because Red can smell anything coming in to attack us from a mile off, and those that he misses, Barret doesn't exactly have to do much to kill anything, just point at it, and there you go, a nice gatling gun aimed at the poor sucker.

The marsh was a very... swampy place. I know, state the obvious, but that's the only way to describe it. I could see the mountain range on the other side. So we need to cross here to get to the Mythril Mines? I can honestly say I'm not looking forward to walking across (bare feet remember). Hopefully we can catch a chocobo without too much hassle. Red sniffed the air, shuddering.

"I can smell quite a large number of monsters, and the faint trace of whom is presumed to be Sephiroth." Red informed us. "I also smell a lot of blood, but I can't tell who's... or what's."

"Anything else?" I questioned.

"Yes... I never want to smell such an awful smell again." He declared.

Barret squinted, looking in the general direction of the Mythril Mines.

"Wha? I see somethin' big comin'!" Barret boomed, pointing his gun-arm at a large black thing that was indeed moving towards us very rapidly.

I slid Talon from its sheath and tensed. As it got closer to us, it was clear what it was. A snake. A giant snake. It slithered up to us and stopped a hairs width away. We stopped breathing, hoping, yet knowing it wasn't to be, that it would sod off. Since when would we be so lucky? The snake's tongue flicked out, and the monstrous snake turned to look at Barret. I wonder if it has hypnotizing skills. Best not wait and find out.

Red started the attack by casting Fire at the snake, which probably would have shrugged it off, had it not been for the lack of arms. No arms, no shrugging, see? Ok, I'll shut up. The snake didn't care that it had just had a fireball smash into it, just pausing, briefly, to give an annoyed glare at Red, before rearing up to its full height. Both Barret and I opened fire. Regrettably, I got the impression that most of the shots we fired merely bounced off of the snake's hide. Add that to the fact that no matter what Red cast, the snake wasn't bothered in the least, and it was easy to tell just where this fight was going.

"I suggest we retreat!" Nanaki yelled over the noise of the gunfire, whilst skillfully dodging an attack from the snake.

Barret nodded. Both he and Red turned tail and fled. And where was I? Still fighting, having not heard a word Red had said. And, being the prat that I am, hadn't realized Barret had stopped shooting. Well, I did, after being sent flying when I was too late in dodging a tail whip. The flying part would have been fun, were it not for the loud crack in my ribs and accompanying pain. Other then that, it was all fun, before landing, just in front of the two runaways. It wasn't that far, since they had only just started running, but the snake wasn't doing anything now. I laid there, staring at the sky in shock. That, was not something I wished to repeat. I know how they feel on the Matrix, when a single kick sent them flying. It didn't feel good.

"Are you alright?" Red asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Peachy." I replied, rubbing a hand across my ribs.

It didn't feel like I had any broken ribs, not that I'd know what a broken rib would feel like. Fracturing could be a possibility, but that isn't as bad as an actual broken rib. I can't just position my ribs properly before healing after all, can I?

"Why were you not fleeing with us?" Red questioned, after a pause.

"You guys were running without me?"

"I thought you heard me shout out the retreat."

"I was busy shooting at a giant snake!"

"Yo..." Barret interrupted. "Dat snake is comin' toward us."

Both Red and I looked back the way we'd come and saw that indeed, the snake was slithering towards us. And fast.

"This time we run together." Red declared, giving me a pointed look.

"Gladly." I muttered.

Red cast thunder on the snake, and unlike the fireball, this one made the serpent pause. We didn't hesitate to use that break to play coward, and run away, our proverbial tails tucked between out legs... oh wait, Red doesn't need a proverbial tail, he has a real one. Well, win some, lose some, I suppose.

The snake chased us for a grand total of 10 seconds, before it realized that it was a lost cause and buggered off. It was only after another five minutes before we decided to slow down though. Giant snakes scare us. We panted, struggling to refill our lungs with air after the mad sprint.

"I can see why we'd need a chocobo." I said, sinking to the ground.

"Indeed. The farmer wasn't exaggerating the danger of the Midgar Zolem."

"Do ya think they got Sephiroth?" Barret asked.

"I doubt it, but we can always hope." Red responded.

"Figures."

"Let's get back to the farm." I grunted. "We can try and talk Bill into loaning us a couple of chocobos or something. And we do still have to wait for Cloud and the girls to get here."

Barret nodded, mumbling something about how all this walking was making him hungry. To tell the truth, I'm a little hungry myself. Good incentive to get back to a nice, comfortable, and monster-free farm, no?

And it was thus, we walked all the way back to the farm, having gained nothing but a near death experience. Wow, what a bargain.

-------

Upon getting back to the farm, we were met with a pleasant surprise. Well, we actually met them just outside the farm. Yes folks, its Cloud and the girls. Somehow, they arrived a whole day before what it would have taken my group had we not hitched a ride... what was he doing? Not sleeping the entire trip?

"You're late." I grunted, sarcastically.

"You're early." Cloud grunted back.

Yes folks, we real men don't speak, we grunt. It's an ancient tradition going back to the time when we married women by dragging them by their hair back to our caves. We didn't speak then either. Grunting, the basis of all communication. Though somehow I doubt the women grunted at that time, I have a feeling they'd be more screaming their displeasure at being dragged around by their hair.

"Stop grunting and start talking properly." Tifa glared at us.

"Yes ma'am." Cloud and I, like the spineless guys we are, obeyed.

Ah, tradition sucks anyway.

"So, what have you found out?" Cloud asked.

"That Sephiroth was seen going across the marsh to the south, towards the Mythril Mines." I answered. "We were going to check it out, but we learnt that Farmer Bill didn't over-exaggerate the local monsters. The only way to cross is with chocobos."

"Well, there are six in the pen." Cloud pointed out. "Let's just ask the farmer for a couple."

"Easier said then done." I muttered. "He told me yesterday that he's sold all of them to Gold Saucer. At most we can rent them, but how do we return them?"

Cloud crossed his arms and pondered, briefly.

"We'll see how talking to him goes." Cloud shrugged, finally.

The spiky blond walked over to the pen and glared at the chocobos, as if blaming them for being sold. One of the chocobos walked up to him and warked softly.

"Yeah, wark." Cloud sarcastically agreed with whatever he envisioned the bird saying.

I jumped in surprise when all six of the birds leapt to attention. I opened my mouth to ask something, but the words were lost when the chocobos started to dance. Each bird took a couple of steps forwards, before rotating their heads clockwise. They then took a couple of steps back and rotated their heads in the opposite direction. They then span around, before leaping into the air.

One of the chocobos broke from the formation and started rubbing its head against Cloud, warking softly. The other five continued, despite the absence of one of their number. The five repeated the previous act, and after they did their leap into the air again, the chocobo that had been cozying up to Cloud returned to the ranks, and they started pairing up. The pairs circled each other several times before one of them leapt forwards, while the other ducked under the airborne partner, effectively switching places. This repeated a couple more times before the birds stopped.

I stood there, mouth hanging wide open. It took a couple of seconds before coherent thought reached my mind. After it did, I burst out laughing.

"That has **got** to be the best five minutes of my life!" I laughed.

Behind me, I could hear several of the others laughing, their thoughts finally reaching their brains. Cloud looked completely bewildered, staring at the chocobos, eyes wide. Eventually he turned towards me.

"They mistook me for a chocobo?" He asked, slowly.

"I'm guessing it's yer hair!" Barret laughed. "Maybe we should call you chocobo head."

Cloud seemed to regain his thoughts at that, and he glowered at the Mr T wannabe. He then looked at something in his hand, before looking at me.

"Here, you can have this." He mumbled, tossing a red orb at me.

I snatched it from out of the air and examined it. A summon Materia. Shrugging, I slotted it into my last free Materia slot. I should try buying a bangle at some point, just for the extra Materia slots. Or maybe I should try buying a different watch. There was that watch that had 8 Materia slots wasn't there? I think it was the precious watch. Maybe I should just get one of them. Double use as well, Materia slots AND tells the time.

_'Hello, kupo.'_

Wait... I know that voice came from my head, but that wasn't Spike... was it? I'm pretty certain his voice wasn't squeaky... nor would he ever say kupo.

_'Oi, this is my mind, go find your own!'_

That one was Spike, and he just shouted at the first voice. Which means I'm either hallucinating, or I've gone schizophrenic. Neither sounds to appealing to me.

_'There's room enough for both, kupo.' _The strange voice snapped. _'What are **you **anyway?'_

_'Me? I'm a lizard, what does it look like?' _Spike again. _'And I was here first. Sod off.'_

Ok, I am very close to breaking down. Why is there a voice in my head that I've never heard before?

_Who are you?_ I asked mentally.

_'I'm Mog. My choco-companion is still in the Materia, kupo.'_

Oh... I have a summon in my head. How does equipping a Materia orb allow the summon beast to enter my head, uninvited?

_I don't suppose you could go back there unless I **need **you in my head could you? Only my head is crowded enough with the lizard that hasn't got a choice in the matter._

_'Fine, kupo. Your wish is our command.'_ Mog agreed.

Oddly, it didn't sound disappointed at the dismissal. Maybe it could tell that I would consider talking, assuming I was really bored, of course. Somehow, a constant barrage of kupos every other sentence did not sound very joyous.

"Erm... Spike?" Cloud asked, waving his hand in front of my face. "Are you alright? You've been staring at the same spot for a couple of minutes now."

I slapped the hand away from my face and glared at Cloud.

"I'm sorry, but I'm trying to figure out how equipping a summon Materia to my weapon would allow whatever creature it is to enter my head unbidden." I snapped.

"Weapons are an extension of one's self." Cloud answered. "Though in some cases that's more true then others. I can't explain it, seeing as I'm not the expert in such things, but it's normal. Its like how you can't use the lightning Materia equipped to my sword or Tifa can't use your fire."

"One of those things that can't be explained except by experts, but they tend to explain in some strange language that us mere mortals can't understand then." I rolled my eyes.

"Exactly." Cloud agreed.

Wonderful. You realise, of course, that I am not going to let any summons we get into my head 24/7. I'd rather they stay out unless I need to ask them something or other, or am just that bored.


	15. Electric de Chocobo

Chapter 14: Electric de Chocobo

I hate the Chocobo Ranch.

They refused, outright, to let us borrow even a single chocobo. Nope, instead, we had to spend a small fortune on a special type of Materia just to lure the big, yellow birds into our waiting arms, along with more grass then you could shake a stick at.

Well... I didn't have a stick handy, so I really mean, more grass then you can shake a gunblade at.

But now, in order to catch ourselves a chocobo, we have to run around like morons, waiting for a chocobo to get attracted to Cloud's hair, sorry, our choco-lure Materia.

Things would be so much easier if Barret would stop trying to teach people in Wutai his large collection of swear words. This was usually accompanied by him shooting his arm at the sky. I'm hoping that a pigeon does a metal Gear Solid 2, and crap on him. Yes, he'll start swearing again, but at least it would give the rest of a good laugh.

However, because of Barret, any chocobo that came near enough for us to see, tended to boldly turn tail and flee in light of the knowledge of just who wanted to right it across the swamp. I don't blame them. Who would want to be ridden by this band of lunatics? Not me, that's for certain.

"Barret. Shut up." Cloud hissed, after the seventeenth chocobo run away at Barret telling it to 'Fuckin' get over here, so that we can fuckin' ride it.'

Did that sound dirty, was it just me?

But, that sums up our current predicament. I'm wondering whether it would be worth it to sell my soul to the Devil (Jade) and get her to somehow make all the chocobos in the area come to us, hassle-free.

_'Nope... not worth it.' _Spike claimed.

The lizard speaks truth. If I want to sell my soul to the Devil, it may as well be for unstoppable power. Or for a short-cut home.

Another chocobo came towards us, giving each of us particularly cautious looks. Of course just as it got close enough for me to grab it, Barret noticed it and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"GET YO YELLOW ASS OVER HERE AND LET US FUCKIN' RIDE YO 'TILL YO DROP!"

Eww, mental images, many mental images that I did not want. The bird must have agreed, since it ran away, at a speed that would put many racing chocobos to shame. Now excuse me while I go and drown myself, for fear of living with the most nasty of mental images for the rest of my life.

Regrettably, Spike's survival instincts stopped me from being able to do so, and a lecture on why suicide was not the way to go from a lizard living in your head, is not pleasant.

Ok, since having Barret around is not constructive towards us catching a chocobo, I'll just bugger off, try and find one on my own. Not like I could do any worse. Five steps away, and in comes another chocobo. Now, the plan is... there is none. Let's just try and catch it before Barret notices this one and scares it off, like all the others.

"Here, chocy, chocy, chocy..."

Yes, I actually said that, trying to lure it closer. The chocobo just gave me a look that said 'What the fuck?' before running away from me.

"Oh, no you don't!" I declared, running after it.

The chocobo warked, speeding up. I pumped my legs harder, giving off a war cry, trying, as hard as I could, to catch the big, yellow, ostrich. I would like to say that I managed to catch it, but what actually happened resulted in me being pecked. Repeatedly.

"Get back here, you ugly duck!"

I chased the chocobo, in circles, for five minutes, yelling of such insults at it, before cornering it. The chocobo looked at me. I looked back. We stared at each other for a full minute.

"Gotcha now, you stinky bird, you!" Yes, I'm embarrassed to say that I did say that.

The chocobo ruffled its feathers, looking insulted, if it's possible for a bird to look insulted, before it started running towards me. I gulped, and started running the other way. What had previously been a war cry had changed to a cry of fear. Now I know how Rodney felt.

And through all this, everyone was laughing at me. Not that I blame them, I'd probably be laughing at me too, if I wasn't being chased by an angry bird at that moment in time. An angry, warking, bird that seemed to think that pecking me would change what I had said. Well, I don't think so. I stand by my beliefs, and if a great big, oversized, yellow chicken disagrees, then tough.

Of course, I didn't exactly anticipate one of those bloody mutant squirrels popping up to see what all the commotion was about. Nor did I expect it to throw a rock at me.

You know those moments in movies, when everything goes in slow motion, and you watch as the hero or the main villain is knocked to the ground? That's what it felt like as I fell, head over heels, skull most likely cracked from the rock. And being knocked to he ground from the rock didn't just cause me pain; however, it also allowed the chocobo to catch up. I looked skywards, and found the chocobo looking down at me, head tilted. I held my breath for several seconds, hoping that it would ignore me.

Yeah, right. Like anything good ever happens to me.

If you thought having a rock hit you in the face hurt, just try being pecked, repeatedly, by an angry chocobo, on the same face that had just been hit by a rock, not even a minute ago.

"Get off... Oww! Sod off!"

Yes, this chocobo doesn't like me. At all. And my trying to get it to, as I so elegantly put it, sod off, only seemed to make it peck harder.

"Cloud, (oww) get over here and woo this (shit) chocobo or something... (Quit pecking me you son of a...) ANYTHING to get it to leave me (ouch) alone!"

Cloud looked at me, amusement evident in his eyes.

"And why would I do that, it seems to like you."

"I couldn't care less about how it feels about me. Just get it to sod off!"

My hand reached for my gunblade, but Tifa yelling made my hand move away from the handle.

"If you hurt that chocobo, you'll be **walking **across the marsh!"

_Tifa, you can be a real bitch sometimes._

_'You can't blame her, I have a feeling that she's as annoyed about this whole running around trying to catch a set of chocobos as you are.'_

Damn you Spike, for being logical. Now, how do I get this yellow bird off of me? Hmm...

_Spike, if you'd please do something, predatory._

I felt Spike take control of our body. For a few brisk seconds, Spike did nothing, but then I felt my lips raising into a snarl, and then a very monstrous sounding hiss came fourth. The chocobo looked at me in shock, before running and cowering behind Cloud. Feeling myself regain control, I stood up, taking a nice long gulp of potion, healing the fracture and peck wounds.

"Well, that's one chocobo... how many do we need?" I asked, trying to ignore the lingering pain.

"Three more." Cloud said, ignoring the hiss I'd made.

"Three?" I repeated.

"One for Barret, one for myself, one for the girls and one for you. Red told me he can keep up without a chocobo."

'_I doubt he'd be able to sit on one anyway.' _Spike mused.

I sniggered slightly at the thought, but then glared at Cloud.

"We only need two more chocobos." I corrected him. "They're strong enough to carry two passengers. You and a partner, and me and a partner."

"But my sword makes me heavier then Barret, so I'll be lucky if they can carry **me**." Cloud argued.

"They can carry you and a second passenger, easily."

"I'm not risking it."

"There is little point in making us work harder then need be, when we could just catch the minimum number and be done."

"No, we're not letting one die of exhaustion in the middle of that swamp."

"It wouldn't die of exhaustion!"

"Yes it would."

"Stop being stubborn!"

"I'm **not** being stubborn, you're being ignorant!"

"Dumb blond!"

"Stupid lizard!"

"Over-compensating jackass!"

"Least I'm human!"

I didn't bother respond to that last one in words. I just socked him there and then, before storming off. If this was a cartoon, steam would be coming out of my ears. Ok, I'll admit that the last one had hit a nerve, and not just because of that dream-slash-memory that I'd had. Having people treat you like you're not even human tends to make you just a bit edgy about remarks like that. No, I'm not coloured, so it wasn't racism, just a group of thugs at my school, who didn't like me for whatever reason.

Shooting any monsters that got dumb enough to try and attack, and sat down on the beach, on the east coast. If it wasn't for the monsters, this place would be a pretty nice place to live in. Of course, like I said, the monsters kinda bring down the value of the area; how Chocobo Bill and his family cope, I do not know. Ten minutes later, I was torn from my thoughts by Tifa walking up to me, before pausing to break some poor monster's teeth with a single punch.

"Hey, we managed to catch another chocobo."

"Whoopee. Only 2 more to go." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"No, only one more. Cloud wanted to say that he's sorry for saying what he did. After he regained consciousness, that is."

"I knocked him out?"

"Yes. He also wishes he hadn't regained consciousness, not after the chewing out Red and Aeris gave him."

Oh yeah, Aeris is only half-human, so statements like that would be a nerve for her as well. And let's not forget Red, who isn't even bipedal. Now, excuse me while I picture the scenario that occurred. True, the real thing probably isn't half as good, but still...

_'You know, you could just summon Boko, kupo.' _Mog piped up.

_Didn't I say stay in the Materia?_

_'You did, but then it's cramped in there, so I came back to this spacious mind. I figure, so long as I'm quiet, you won't care, kupo.'_

_Are there any side effects to this. _I mentally groaned.

_'None.'_

_Fine, stay. But keep quiet unless spoken to._

So much for my earlier declaration of no more freeloaders in my mind.

_'You can't be serious? I was here first, get that thing to sod off!'_

_'You didn't even know I was here until I spoke up, so just behave as you normally would, and you'll hardly notice I'm here, kupo. Don't worry, Boko is not here, so it'll be quiet.'_

_'Do you at least have a better name then 'Mog'? Mog sounds like the name of a cat.'_

I heard Mog grumbling something.

_'What was that?'_

_'...Montblanc...'_

_'That's better.'_

Wait... that name sounds familiar. Montblanc, where have I heard that name before? Oh, I different Final Fantasy. Tactics Advance if I recall correctly. Heh, who would have guessed?

Tifa waved her hand in front of my eyes, clicking every other second.

"Spike, you alive?"

In my head, the two voices quietened.

_'Jethro, you alright?'_

_'I thought his name was Spike, kupo?'_

_'No, Spike's my name. But it sounds better then Jethro.'_

_'...Kupo.'_

_'I think we've broken his mind.'_

"I'm fine." I shot out, wiping the drool from my face. "Just asking **dear **Montblanc about how plausible it is for me to summon and ride the summon across the marsh. Save out on a chocobo."

Tifa's eyebrow rose.

"Montblanc?"

"Apparently, the entity living in my head now is called Montblanc. But at first he called himself Mog."

"You have a Moogle living in your head?" Tifa asked, looking amused.

"If the constant 'kupos' are anything to go by, then yes, I have a Moogle and a chocobo living in my head." And an annoying lizard, but I didn't say that out loud.

_'Oi, I heard that!'_

But apparently, I didn't think it quietly enough.

_Is it possible to summon 'Boko' and ride him across the marsh?_

_'Well, what do you think we're here for? A chocobo and a Moogle hardly made a fearsome entity for battle!'_

_Well, kamikaze-ing into large groups of enemies might do quite a bit of damage._

The response to that was a lot of grumbling.

"But yes." I continued to Tifa. "I can apparently summon myself a chocobo with my nice new Materia, and casually ride across the swamp."

_'So long as you have the energies to keep us around.'_

"So long as I have the energies to keep then around. Wait, what?"

"And if you don't have the energies?" Tifa queried.

_'Then your brain will probably explode from the mental pressure.'_

"Then my brain will... explode... from the mental pressure... Well **there's** some bloody fine print for ya!"

"You aren't summoning the chocobo!" Tifa ordered me, going so far as to jab her finger into my chest, to make the point.

It probably would have helped if Spike hadn't said the exact same thing. Well, there's a vote a confidence.

_'Oh, don't worry, we tend to automatically un-summon ourselves if it even begins to look like that's a possibility.'_

Relaying this message to Tifa made her frown, giving me a very unnerving look.

"And what happens if you happen to be in the middle of the marsh when your ride disappears?"

"Then I run away from any giant snakes that I happen to see, all the while shedding what little pride a would have left at that point by screaming as I run."

Well, I was honest.

"look, if you're really worried, let Red run alongside me." I said. "At least that way, **if** I end up without a ride, I won't be alone. Strength in numbers. And red was the only one able to stun one of those things last time. And as far as we can tell, this is the only obstacle which requires a chocobo to pass, which means that this should be the only time I'll **need** to summon Boko."

Tifa hesitated. I pulled my trump card.

"It means we won't have wait who-knows-how-long for us to catch another chocobo."

Tifa visibly flinched at the thought of standing around, listening to Barret swearing, waiting for yet another chocobo to come by, and let itself be caught.

"Fine. Once." She relented.

I gave a small whoop of celebration, before the sound of someone clearing their throat made me turn around. Nanaki gave me an odd look, before speaking.

"The others are curious as to where you two have disappeared off to."

"We have our third chocobo." I grinned.

Red's eyebrow raised several centimetres.

"Indeed? And where is this chocobo?"

"In my head. Part of that summon Materia I was given."

"Ah. The Choco-Mog Materia, I take it?"

"You know of it?"

"Spike, before I was captured by the Shinra, research was one of my precious few hobbies." Red rolled his eye. "I know of nearly every type of Materia that has ever been used, and then some. I know that Choco-Mog is the lowest level summon-able entity, but throughout history, was rarely used for battles, but used by powerful warriors as their steeds. I know that there is a Materia that is said to be nothing but a myth, one so powerful, that ancient kings used it to wipe out entire armies."

_'What I'd give to get our hands on that last one.' _Spike whistled.

"What I'd give to get our hands on that last one." Tifa, unknowingly, quoted Spike.

"Indeed. However, for all we know, it could just be a myth. Ancient history is always difficult to decipher. Some of what we acknowledge as fact could very well be ancient legend."

_'He has a point. Kupo.' _Montblanc pointed out.

_'I thought you were going to stay quiet.' _Yes, that was Spike.

"Anyway." I stopped any the conversation, dead on its tracks. "I'm now going to go, cross that swamp. Red, you're with me, if anything happens, I need a meat shield... sorry, supporting ally... to aid me in my mad sprint for the mines."

Red rolled his eye, looking only vaguely amused.

"Well then, _supporting ally_. Summon your noble steed, and we'll be off."

Ok. Now to figure out how to actually summon my ride. Erm... how do you summon?

_How **do** I summon?_

The silence was just a second too long for my taste, but when Montblanc gave me the instructions, I didn't hesitate to do as he said. I wish I had.

"Choco-Mog, I choose you!" I shouted out, dramatically, pointing at where I wanted my ride to appear, as par the instructions.

Nothing happened. Unless you count Tifa and Red bursting into laughter.

_Very funny._

_'I thought so, kupo.'_

_'You walked right into that one.'_

Yes, I had just been told to mimic Ash Ketchum, and like an idiot, I did so. My reputation, is now in ruins.

"That. Was. Great." Tifa said, laughing between each word. "That was just as good as Cloud having a chocobo trying to woo him."

"Have I ever mentioned that I hate my life?" I asked, rhetorically.

"Once or twice." Red nodded, seriously.

"Well, I'd like to repeat that statement."

"Noted."

Tifa's mobile rang, prompting her to answer it. She made a few sounds to whoever was on the other end, mostly made up of 'uh-huh' and hums. After roughly 30 odd seconds, she hung up.

"Barret managed to lose both of our chocobos. Cloud said that if we catch our own chocobo, to go on ahead."

"And we just so happen to have a chocobo." I grunted. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

"You to summon the chocobo."

Oh, right... If I can figure out how...

_'It's exactly the same as standard magic, kupo. Just requires more concentration.'_

That sounded easy enough, and miles more plausible then what I'd been told to do previously. So, just will a chocobo ('_with Moogle, kupo') _into existence. After about ten seconds of staring into space, a chocobo, with a bandanna clad Moogle, appeared. Montblanc clapped, as if in celebration while Boko warked at me.

"Congrats. Now can we get going?"

Sighing at the lack of celebration, I mounted the chocobo, making myself comfortable. Rolling her eyes, Tifa sat behind me.

"You do know how to ride a chocobo, don't you?" She asked me.

"How hard can it be? It's bound to be easier then riding a motorbike."

"I'm gonna die..." Tifa whimpered.

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. For an awesome martial artist, she can be a real wuss.

"Ok, Boko. Let's go." I said to the chocobo, who proceeded to start marching in the direction we wanted to go, Red trotting alongside us.

When we reached the marsh, Boko started running faster, and Red managed to keep up. Looking to the side, I could see one of the snakes, gliding towards us, yet getting smaller as we went. Hmm, riding the chocobo across the marsh was worth it. And it means I don't get my clothes covered in bog water, or whatever it is that swamps are made of.

And I managed to reach the other end of the swamp without any serious side effects. It only took 5 minutes to get there, and Montblanc was assuring me that even the weakest of magic users could take at least ten minutes of having a summoned entity out, doing whatever the summoner bids them to do. Though when Boko and Montblanc faded from existence, I did feel slightly light-headed, but that might not necessarily be because I'd summoned. Though I wouldn't have minded riding until we reached the mines proper, Tifa was adamant when she told me to dismiss them once we reached firm land, several minutes away from the entrance. In other words, she was being paranoid about me keeping a summon around. 'Besides', she told me, 'you can use the exercise.' What a load of bull.

You know, the next part I was expecting, but even knowing what you're going to see doesn't prepare you for the actual sight.

One of those snakes, several times bigger then the one Red, Barret and myself had run away from, impaled on a tree. Not just that. The blood was still dripping from where the tree entered the snake's head, bringing about the illusion that it was raining blood. I stared up at the serpent's corpse, ignoring the slight fear that was forming at the back of my mind. It was hard to tell if the fear was mine or Spike's. Heck, it could even be Montblanc's, but somehow I doubt it.

"Sephiroth did **this**?" Tifa gasped.

I had to agree, the game didn't do this part justice. That snake is a **lot** bigger then the game showed it to be, and there was something about it, something that I can't really describe. Like a feeling. Something in the air, something that the game could never emulate, even if it tried.

"This is a power that should be respected." Red murmured, gravely.

"Why did he impale it on the tree? If he could do that, wouldn't it have been simpler to just kill it and be done?" I asked, though I wasn't expecting an answer.

"Maybe he gets some perverse form of pleasure from forcing his foes to suffer." Nanaki replied. "That thing was alive at the time of impalement. It suffered a slow death."

I looked at Red, and he nodded his head towards the snake's head. I looked up, and noticed its eyes. They were open, and showed a world of pain within their blank stare. I swallowed, uneasily. There is a word that describes what Sephiroth did to this thing: sick. Just like his massacre in the Shinra Tower.

"Let's just go." Tifa said.

I whole heatedly agreed with her. We walked past the Midgar Zolem. Just behind it was the entrance to the Mythril Mines. Inside, everything was seemed to radiate a blue glow. Almost right away, we hit a junction. Left or right, such a difficult choice. I know that one way leads to a dead end... in the game. Actually being here, there were lots of details that the actual game skipped out on, and I have a feeling that this place is no different; chances are that these mines will be like a maze. And for some reason, my companions see me as the group leader. Red, I can vaguely understand, since apparently we're childhood friends, he probably has some trust in me from back then, but Tifa, how can she trust me, we only met, what... a week ago? Something like that... I think. But she seems to trust me not to get us lost, which I'm kinda weirded out about.

_Oh well, lets not screw up then._

Shrugging, I led everyone to the right. I'm pretty certain that that was the way to go. And encountered another junction. I was right, this is going to be a maze. With monsters, I noted, sidestepping a medium sized monster that leapt out of the shadows at me. It was dead before it landed.

_I'm getting pretty good at this._

There isn't much to tell about the trip through the mines. It was mostly just us walking, with us stopping to get a monster to die, as a means of punishment for daring to attack us. At some point, I got into an argument with Tifa, who started to believe that I was leading us in circles. But that was stopped when Red said that we weren't going in circles, and that he would know if we had.

Though something unexpected did happen to us, after an hour of walking around, mindlessly. We heard a voice, as we entered a large cavern.

"Just a second!" A deep voice spoke up.

We turned and spotted a bald guy, with a goatee and pierced ears. Change his suit from blue to black, and we'd have Agent 47, the most famous hitman of all video game history. But that didn't change the fact that he **was** a hitman. Well, the Turks are a form of hitmen, aren't they?

"Who are you?" Tifa asked.

Well, we haven't actually met this guy yet, have we.

"Do you know who I am?" Rude (yes, it's Rude, how many other bald Turks do you know?) said.

"Not you personally, but you're a Turk, one of those responsible for giving me the electroshock therapy."

Rude flinched, as he understood what I was referring too.

"Don't think all of the Turks are like that." He said, looking annoyed. "Cel only did it because you embarrassed him before and he let his feelings get in the way of his judgement."

"Right..."

"Anyway... if you know, then this won't take long. It's difficult to explain what the Turks do…"

"Kidnapping? Unless Aeris was just unlucky."

"To put it negatively... you **could** say that... But that's not all there is to it, anymore..."

Another voice called out from above us.

"Sir! It's all right, Rude! I know you don't like speeches, so don't force it!"

We looked up and spotted Elena standing on a ledge above us.

"Oi, you were one of those responsible for teaching me why I never want to be an electrician!" I shouted.

Elena glared down at me.

"Shouldn't you be dead?"

"Hojo actually did the world a favour and give me a Phoenix Down! He wanted a **live** specimen. Too bad live specimen translates into 'specimen that can escape'!"

Rude interrupted Elena's response.

"Elena, explain."

"I'm the newest member of the Turks, Elena."

Rude already said your name, get on with it!" I yelled at her, prompting her to glare at me again.

"Thanks to what you did to Reno, we're short of people." She continued, scathingly. "…Although, because of that, I got promoted to the Turks… In any case, our job is to find out where Sephiroth is headed. And to try and stop you every step of the way. Wait a minute, it's the other way

around… You're the ones that are getting in our way."

Man, she just managed to get me really confused, and all she did was tell us her orders, not exactly a professional thing to do.

"…Elena. You talk too much." Tseng's voice came out.

"I whole heatedly agree with that statement." I said.

Elena glared at me yet again, before looking humble before Tseng.

"Sorry…Tseng."

"No need to tell them about our orders. Now go. Don't forget to file your report." Tseng told her.

"Oh! Right! Very well, Rude and I will go after Sephiroth, who's heading for Junon Harbour!"

Man, open a dictionary, and her picture will be the definition of 'dumb blond'.

"…Elena. You don't seem to understand."

The female Turk gasped, realizing what she had done.

"Oh! I'm, I'm sorry…" She stuttered.

"…Go. Don't let Sephiroth get away." Tseng ordered, sounding stressed.

"Yes sir!" Both Rude and Elena saluted.

" …Reno said he wanted to see you after the injuries you gave him healed. He wants to show his affection for you all…with a new weapon." Rude told us, looking... like Rude.

Seriously, that guy hasn't changed facial expressions, not once.

The two Turks left the cavern, leaving Tseng, who looked at us.

"Well, then… Where's Aeris? She's not with you?" He asked.

"Other group." I informed him.

"Oh… Then give her my regards."

And with that, he left, following his two lackeys.

"Think we should follow them?" I asked my two companions.

"They might show us the way out of the mines." Red agreed.

Tifa just nodded.

_'You are aware that there's somebody standing right behind you, aren't you?' _Spike asked.

Say what? Slowly, I turned around, and received a good solid kick to my face. Yup, that was exactly what happened. A woman, in a blue suit, did a spinning kick, which sent me flying.

"Fuck..." I grunted on landing. I looked up, and watched as this mystery Turk knocked out Red, before getting into a martial arts fight with Tifa. Hmm, if I know my martial arts, then this mystery woman is doing some variant of Tai Kwon Do. And giving Tifa a run for her money.

Charging, I swung my gunblade at the woman, but again she kicked my, this time connecting with my hand, sending my blade flying, and embedding itself in the wall. She then swept my feet out from under me, and almost stamped on my head, if she hadn't been forced to put her full attention on Tifa.

_'She's good.'_

_Now is not the time to start complimenting the enemy!_

Leaping to my feet, I tried to advance on her, slowly, so as not to make her focus on me. Just as she managed to get a roundhouse kick to connect with Tifa's face, I grabbed her from behind. Well, I have her in a hold, that's good.

Both of my companions are out cold. That's bad.

The mystery Turk wiggled around until she was facing me, and seemed to examine me. I returned the favour and examined her back. She had long violet hair and matching eyes. Something about her was off. And I don't mean the violet eyes. There was something... not human, about her.

"So, you're the one that knocked Cel off of his high horse. I suppose I should be thanking you." She grinned.

"And you are?"

"Call me Tia. I already know that you're called Spike, so no need to introduce yourself on my account."

Tia... pronounced: tie-ah. A female Turk (who wasn't in the game) called Tia, and something seems off about her. That, my friends, is the meager amount of information about her that I know of.

"Now, why would a cute boy like you be running around with terrorists?"

And she called me cute. She has weird taste, if she was serious. Seriously, why would someone call me cute, when I don't even look like a member of the same species? Heck, I'm **not** a member of the same species anymore.

But my chain of thought, was broken when she answered my question, in two easy steps. First, she smooched me, right on the lips. Then, when my grip had slackened from the shock... she kneed me in the stomach. Ok, I see now, she was confusing me, and basically lowering my defences. Bitch. Well, at least I hope that's the case... she isn't my type if she was serious. I don't go for assassins. And the fact that she just managed to hand me my ass on a diamond platter kind of put me off as well. Never mind the fact that she looked early thirties. That's about twice my age, thanks, but no thanks.

Tia crouched down besides me, looking at me with a dangerous grin on her face.

"We'll probably see each other again, some day. I look forward to it, cutie."

And with those words, she left the same way as the other three Turks. Leaving me groaning, on the ground. What the hell are her knees made out of, adamantium?

Two minutes later, I finally find a potion and start chugging it down, like an alcoholic would with beer. I wonder if its possible to get addicted on potions... well, now that the pain is bearable, (barely), I'd best see about Red and Tifa.

Both are unconscious, but it didn't look so bad that they'd die without immediate medical attention. Not that them dying would be a problem, I do have a small number of Phoenix Downs to use after all.

Grunting, I cast Cure on both of them (I grunted because my stomach still really hurts, despite the potion) and helped them get up.

Once Tifa learnt what had happened in regards to Tia (and a snigger at the mentioning that the only reason she managed to get out of my grapple was because she kissed me, something that Red also chuckled at), we once again traversing the mines. Only this time, slightly slower then before, but actually headed in the right direction, since we were tracking the Turks. The footprints they left behind were difficult to see, since they were so faint, but they **were** followable. Once you found them.

My mind was only half focused on the tracking though. I was more thinking on who Tia was. Why did every sense I have scream that she was dangerous when I saw her. They didn't do that with the other Turks, and I already know that they're dangerous. What was different about miss violet? What made her seem so inhuman?

I snapped out of my reverie when my eyes started to hurt. Blinking, my eyes adjusted to the different lighting, and I gave a loud whoop.

We had left the mines, we were back in the county. No more getting routinely lost in a maze full of monsters.

"WHOOOOOOO!"

* * *


	16. I Fort of a Condor

Chapter 15: I Fort of a Condor

After hiking for a day and a half, Tifa, Red XIII and myself, Jethro James John Logan, alias: Spike, came across a rather odd building. It looked almost exactly like one of the Mako reactors back in Midgar, only this one was over grown with moss and vines and things. But no, the real kicker was the giant bird on top of the large structure.

"Is that a Condor?" Tifa asked, looking up at the giant bird in awe.

"It certainly looks like one." Red responded, looking at the bird.

"What's it doing on a Mako reactor?" I queried.

"It looks like it hasn't been in use for years." Tifa mused.

"Maybe we should take a closer look." Red suggested.

Tifa and I looked at each other, before shrugging. It sounded like a plan. Plus, I have to say that I am just a tad curious about that Condor. It looks vaguely akin to a Phoenix, but with little details that told us that it wasn't the case.

We were halfway up a very steep hill, well, that's an understatement. We were halfway up a small mountain, and halfway was as far as we had planned on going, but we had noticed signs of civilisation, and seeing as we were running short on supplies, decided to make a supply run and stock up.

As we neared the reactor, I noticed that the ground was showing typical signs of a reactor being nearby. The closer we got, the more barren the land became.

Finally, we reached the reactor, and almost immediately, found the entrance. It was guarded by a man, who was dressed in urban camouflage colours, and holding an assault rifle. He looked at our little rag-tag group and nodded.

"Been a while since anybody has visited our friendly little community." He muttered, sarcastically.

"What is this place?" Tifa asked him.

"This is Fort Condor. Listen, you look like fighters, we could use some help."

"What do you need help with?" I asked.

"There's a Shinra attack coming. The army is about a day away now, but we're not soldiers here, we're just a lot of people, with guns. We need all the help we can get."

We looked at each other, thinking.

"We should help out." Tifa claimed. "Besides, it's for a good cause."

"We'll be hurting the Shinra, that's always a plus." I grinned.

"I believe that we should help them. Plus, they could give us our much needed supplies afterwards." And Red went all logical.

I turned to the guard.

"We'll help." I told him.

The guard grinned, hearing the good news.

"Great, go on in, and report to the boss, he's in the observation room. He'll give you the briefing."

_'I thought he said they were a group of people with weapons, and **not** actual soldiers.' _Spike murmured._ 'He sounded pretty military to me.'_

Ignoring the lizard within, I stepped through the door and observed the vine that happened to be the only way into the building proper. Yeah... now... **HOW THE FLYING FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET RED UP THERE?**

"How am I supposed to climb up there?" Red asked, mirroring my thoughts.

"Maybe we can tie the vine around you then pull you up." I suggested.

"Only as a last resort."

"Maybe you can piggyback him." Tifa put in her two cents.

"I like that idea."

Trust Red to like the idea that I piggyback him. This is his idea of revenge for the meat shield joke several days ago, isn't it?

And thus, I was forced to piggyback him up the vine, which didn't snap, by some kind of miracle. At the top, now in the building proper, I took my first look around. It wasn't very technological, compared to the one I visited back in Midgar; in fact, everything looks rather dank, and dingy. But then, if you're in a state of worrying over whether Shinra are about to attack or not, I suppose keeping the place clean would be a rather low priority.

We walked through the hallway, and came out in a large hall, several tables scattered around, with a few people seated at these tables. On one end of the hall, was a bar, complete with those nifty bear taps. One of the men seated closest to us looked up as we entered and grinned. He was too old to be of any good fighting, so I wondered why he was here.

"Ah, hello." The old man grinned.

"Hi." I said.

"Looking for anyway in particular?"

"Yeah, we were told to go to the observation room."

"Ah." The old man nodded in understanding, before pointing to a door which led to a ladder. "That ladder will lead you right up there."

"Thanks."

We walked over to the ladder.

"I don't have to carry you up this as well, do I?" I asked Red.

"Mo. I can climb ladders without too much difficulty." He assured me.

As if to prove it, he then climbed up the ladder, without any assistance. I stared up at his retreating form.

"Clever." Tifa let out.

"He's had practice." I pointed out.

We followed our canine (or is it feline?) companion up the ladder. At the top, is a large man, who looks like he's a Russian. Seriously, you know those Soviet Russian soldiers, and how they're always portrayed in movies. This guy looks just like that.

"Welcome aboard, chaps."

Ok, this guy looks like a stereotypical Soviet Russian soldier, but talks with a stereotypical British accent.

"Err..." I started. "We were told to report to you for briefing."

"I see. Well, the situation is thus..." He began. "Shinra have never liked us living here, but never really tried when it came to evicting us. Some nasty business in Midgar involving a landslide or some such lark."

"I think it was involving AVALANCHE." I interrupted him.

"Right on, ol' chap. Anyway, fairly recently, this Condor recently built its nest and lay an egg here. Since then, the Shinra seems to be coming in full force now. We barely survived the last siege, and haven't had time to lick out wounds before they sent another force to besiege us. We need all the help we can get. If we can survive this one siege, then we'll have time for the reinforcements to arrive. See, we hired some a small army to aid us, but they won't get here in time to help out with this army, unless the siege is still going on in a week's time."

"So at the moment, you're hurting for all the help you can get to help repel this one attack."

"Exactly."

"We'll do what we can." Tifa told him.

"Appreciate it." The strange man held out his hand. "I'm Captain Antonio, formerly of the Shinra."

I accepted his hand, finding him even more amusing now. He looks like a stereotypical Soviet Russian soldier, with a stereotypical British accent, and a name that, if I'm not mistaken, is Italian. This guy is all over the atlas.

"You're welcome to use any of our facilities. We have a weapon shop, a general items shop, an inn which you may stay in for free and you passed the bar on the way here. All money spent at the shops goes towards our hiring more mercenaries."

Wow, what an advertisement for the shops here: 'all your money goes to charity.' That really makes me wanna buy stuff. Well, no, the fact that we need more supplies makes me wanna buy stuff. Tifa seems interested in the mentioning of the shops, but personally, I'm more interested in the inn that they're letting us stay in, free of charge. Trust me, after spending most nights in a tent, which isn't very comfortable, a bed can seem like a gift from the heavens.

Red didn't seem to have an interest in either of those. He cared more about having a dinner which was rationed. You know, I think he has the right idea, when Tifa made us start rationing our precious few supplies; I haven't actually had the satisfaction of having a nice, full stomach. I don't know whether it's because my metabolism changed, when I became what I am, but I don't care, I've always needed a full stomach to be the end result when I eat.

So, this was the plan we agreed on: Tifa would go shopping for our supplies, me and Red would get us some dinner, and she would join us once she was done. I liked that plan. It was a very good plan, it involved me and food and the food being eaten by me. A better plan, you could not find.

So we parted ways in the large hall, where sometime during our talk with Antonio, more people had sat themselves down and carts were bought in, you know, those ones that act as portable ovens, so that the food doesn't get cold. It seemed to be an all you can eat buffet. Well, they probably didn't anticipate me eating all that I could, since chances are, there'll be none left for them.

_Well, who am I to deny myself food? _I thought, grabbing a plate.

Let's see, they have chips, they have burgers, they have hot dogs, they have various amounts of different styles of foods. But what really got my attention was in the curry cart. Lamb Tika Madras. My favourite. With a wide grin, I start loading my plate up full of the madras, with accompanying rice, whatsit bread, and spare ribs. A feast fit for me. I walked back to the table where Red was waiting for me, and slid a second plate, one I had loaded with whatever meat I could find, in front of him.

"I can't recall what it was you ate, so I just grabbed random meat for you." I told him, as he eyed the food.

"Appreciated." He grunted, grabbing a poor defenceless piece of meat and tearing it a new one. "I see your appetite has only grown."

"What can I say; I'm still a growing lad." I laughed, starting to eat the ribs.

After I finished my first plate, Tifa returned, with our supplies, and a plate of her own, with almost as much food as I'd just eaten.

"Jeez, Tifa, a little much?" I asked, staring at all the food on her plate.

"With the amount of calories I burn off, even on a slow day, I need all the energy I can get." She snapped at me, before gorging herself into her dinner.

"Never question a female's diet." Red nodded, sagely.

"I thought it was never, not even subtly, suggest that a female is fat?" I asked, looking at him.

"That too."

Rolling my eyes, I got up and refilled my plate, with the exact same amount as my first helping. Now it was Tifa's turn to stare at my plate.

"And you thought that **I **had a bit much..."

"My metabolism is different from yours, so don't start." I muttered, digging in. "And I'm a guy, that also affects my diet needs."

As it was, I managed to eat about four plates of Lamb Tika Madras. And then I would have eaten more, but there was none left; I wasn't the only one eating the stuff, so it did run out. With a shrug, I picked up a burger to eat as we left for the inn. It wasn't too difficult to find, Tifa had found it on her way to the shops.

What can I say; we all fell asleep, with full stomachs. Not much to tell here. Let's just skip to the morning.

In the morning, we were awakened by a loud, wailing siren. One that almost gave me a heart attack. Bastard. Now, let's go talk to the good Captain and find out just why he deemed it necessary to give me a near heart attack.

Upon reaching the observation room, we observed several men running out of the door at the other end of the room. Antonio turned to look at us, gravely.

"Seems the Shinra have arrived several hours ahead of schedule." He informed us, looking out the window. "They'll be crawling up the mountainside in a matter of moments."

"What makes you think that they'll be coming up this side?" Tifa asked, taking a look out the window as well.

"Not even the Shinra is dumb enough to attempt to climb the other side, and the way you three entered; when under lock down, may as well be a steel wall. Why do you think we use a vine as a means of getting up? So they can't swarm us. The first time they attacked us, it took four men to kill the entire lot. So now, we keep four guards posted at the trap door, and everyone else here, at the only other entrance."

"I see."

"Now, hop to it. The objective is to either kill the entire lot, or wipe out their commander. A fierce fellow who goes under Supreme Commander Garland Horn is leading them. Take him out, and the remainder of the attackers will be without a leader."

"Yes, sir." I grunted, moving towards the door.

Outside, the air was cold, and the wind strong. Directly behind me was the Condor's nest. Let me tell you, that bird is freaking huge. Why would it lay its egg here of all places? This area is a battleground.

Now, looking down, I could see a very large number of blue clad men, all at the base of the mountain, and starting to march up. Red looked at them, thinking.

"Spike, summon your chocobo; it'll cause disruption in their ranks. Break morale."

Nodding, I focused on summoning Montblanc and Boko. Both appeared, already charging down the mountain towards the army. As they went, I could faintly hear Montblanc yelling:

"Kamikaze!"

Well, whatever floats his boat. Faintly, I could see the large army breaking apart as a large, mystical chocobo ploughed through their ranks, breaking up their oh-so-good formations. Well, HA!

At that point, me, Red and Tifa split up, taking different positions, further down the mountain. We were supposed to be keeping them from getting that high up, after all. I took up a position about halfway down, behind a large rock, with two other people. One of them was the guard from yesterday; the other was a guy who looked like an extra from the Matrix. Tall, dark hair, trench coat, shades, you know what I mean. Both of them shot me a brief glance, but otherwise ignored me.

About quarter of an hour later, I heard the sounds of fighting start further down the mountain. Seems that the Shinra just hit our first line of defence. Another ten minutes later, and I heard footsteps. My two companions must have as well, since they both tensed. I took a quick look around the corner of the rock and quickly counted five Shinra troops. I held out my hand, all fingers outstretched, telling my comrades how many there were, before, silently, unsheathing my gunblade. We waited for several brief seconds, letting them get closer before leaping out, ambushing them.

I swung around, killing one soldier with a nasty slash to his chest. The Neo-wannabe decided that he wanted to be like Neo so much, he decided to use Kung Fu on the troops, beating them to bloody pulps with his bare fists. The other guy did what his weapon allowed him to do; he just shot anybody that he spotted. I slammed my elbow into a trooper's jaw, sending him rolling down the mountain; something I watched with interest, before cheering as I watched my human bowling ball achieve a great strike. Of course, when the idiots that allowed themselves to be bowled over recovered, they didn't appreciate my bowling talent, in fact, they must have been jealous, since they promptly started to shoot at me. My quick and obviously skillful response; duck and cover...

_(More like trip over your own feet, trying to avoid the bullets, before rolling down the hill behind another rock...)_

...But this isn't a tale of my obvious heroism. (_What heroism?) _After taking out another trooper, this one stupidly screaming a war cry as he charged to where I was... erm... covering (_read cowering)_... warning me long in advance that he was coming.

After wiping the floor with the remnants of the squad, I viewed Tifa, some way up the mountain, taking on another group of the Shinra soldiers. Single handedly. And winning. Ok, she's giving Trinity a run for her money. Of course, Trinity never had the ability to cast magic when needed, so I suppose that's a mute-point. I actually winced in sympathy at the vicious iron-palm he received. If he's alive at the end of this, I doubt his nose will recover.

I side-step and spinning kick later, I faced the next group of soldiers, waiting for one of them to make a move, which, unless it were to turn and run away, would be very stupid on their parts. They charged as a group, well, all except one. A very elaborately dressed man stood by, watching with interest. Déjá vu... I could have sworn that something like this happened once before.

The moron soldiers charged, but their morale dropped, quite significantly, when Red leapt into their midst, attacking them without mercy. Between us and the Neo-wannabe, who quickly came to our assistance, we made quick work of the group, and turned to the officer. The officer had a look of mild annoyance, like he'd just been stung in the ass by a bee. Neo-wannabe tensed, seeing the man.

"That's the Supreme Commander." He told us.

Supreme Commander Horn looked up at us, hearing us talking about him.

"Stupid idiots." He snarled. "You have no idea who you're messing with! I, Garland, shall knock you all down!"

If he was trying to be dramatic, then he just failed. Miserably. That one sentence just ruined the effect. We burst out laughing. Obviously not the effect he was looking for, since he started growling. Loudly.

"DIE!" He screamed, drawing a bastard sword (does anybody know why they're called that?) and charging.

I blocked his first strike, but found myself struggling against his strength. Ok, I'll give him this... he's strong. I found that just deflecting a single blow had my knees buckling. Instead of wait around for his next strike, I leapt backwards, avoiding the slash. Now, let's think up a strategy.

_'I say we just charge mindlessly and try to hack him to bits.'_ Spike spoke up.

What a good plan. Readying my gunblade, I proceed to charge at him, only I didn't. I pretended to, making him flinch and throw up an impressive defence, one that would have ripped me to shreds if I'd actually charged. And that there, was why I decided against the advice of charging mindlessly.

The guy was an idiot. He kept waving his huge sword around for ten seconds, and only stopped because Neo-wannabe decided to do a flying kick to the back of his head, sending him head over heels, down the mountain, bowling me over. I clambered to my feet and lifted my gunblade in time to block the already recovered Garland's blade. Ok, an idiot he may be, but he does seem to recover pretty quickly.

Several dodges later, I actually moved in for my attack, our blades clashing, creating an impressive display of sparks. Both of us stood there, each trying to over-power the other. Even with Spike taking more and more control, trying to grant me his strength, I could tell that I was physically weaker than him. Of course, the fact that my spine was slowing being forced into a position where it'd snap at any minute kind of helped me reach that conclusion. Spike made me deliver a swift kick to the Supreme Commander's mid-torso, sending him staggering back, before slipping and taking another tumble down the mountain.

I suppressed a gasp when, despite having gone quite a distance, when he got back to his feet, he ran faster then should be possible, back up the mountain and into fighting distance, where I barely saw the sword as he swung it. It was only thanks to Spike's reflexes that I was able to duck in time. No time to think, I allowed his reflexes to carry on as he dodged another two slashes, before doing a cartwheel to avoid a downward slash, which would have left me in two halves. But, I was never any good at cartwheels, so I fell into a heap.

Garland smirked at me as he moved towards where I lay, looking very much like a predator. Only he didn't get halfway. He looked up the mountain sharply, before shifting his blade. Not a second after, Tifa appeared, her kick hitting the broad side of the Supreme Commander's blade, which he'd shifted to act as a make-shift shield when he'd spotted her flying down the mountain, towards him. A grunt, and he swung the blade, swatting Tifa like a fly. The martial artist landed in a much better cartwheel then what I'd managed to pull off, before she did a back flip, landing in a ready position, fists raised. While the Grand Commander was pre-occupied with Tifa, I clambered to my feet and leapt up, executing a Braver-like move.

Garland must have been expecting it, because at the last second, he spun around, sword blocking my blade. However, as I was send back in the air from the force of his defence, I doubt he expected me to shoot at him. The bullet connected with his shoulder, exiting the other side, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Garland roared in pain. But that bullet hole didn't disappear just because he screamed at it. No, it stayed, and may as well have been a painted target. Tifa used that bullet hole for her bunch bag; she aimed a punch at the injury, giving the Supreme Commander more pain to deal with. Unfortunately for him.

Though he must have held me responsible, since he charged at me, with a roar, and started swinging that sword of his again. I shot him in the chest before he reached me, but he ignored the new wound, and didn't even falter.

_Oh, great. A Berserker..._

I slid under the Supreme Commander's legs during his first swing, kicking both of my feet into the small of his back, sending him rolling down the hill again. During the lapse in action, I tried to run back up the mountain, towards a larger cluster of friendlies. When a shadow covered me, I looked up, and gulped.

"Don't tell me he's a Dragoon as well as a Berserker!" I whimpered to myself, watching him get closer to me.

As he neared, Spike took full control, making me do something that I doubted I'd ever be able to do again. My somersault narrowly dodged the attack, but I wasted precious seconds trying to recover from the shock. Unfortunately, the last time I'd done a somersault, I almost snapped my back, and afterwards, my body tends to freeze before I can even try, so now that I've been forced to do one, I need moments to recover movement in my body.

Moments that I did not have. I was lucky enough that Spike realized that the move probably hadn't been the best one, giving my history, and took control again, ducking under a spinning slash that sliced off half of the rock that had been to our back. A diving roll to the side managed to avoid his uppercut.

It also avoided the large boulders that started to rain down the area. The boulders hit the Commander, but he somehow managed to simply shrug them off. Is this guy even human? If I just got hit by a large boulder, I know I'd be dead, or at least be in agony.

Garland moved towards me, blade raised, when Neo-wannabe leapt on his back, wrapping his arms around the Supreme Commander's neck as tightly as he could. Garland threatened to cleave the fighter in half, but the Neo-wannabe must have realized that it was a bluff, because he didn't move. Easy to tell why it was a bluff, since going through with it would likely cleave himself in half as well. But that didn't stop Garland from backing into one of the boulders that hadn't crumbled upon impact. A loud crack told me what had happened to Neo-wannabe's spine. The fighter fell to the ground, unmoving.

The Supreme Commander smirked at me, before charging again.

I fired several shots at him before diving further down the mountain. Is it humanely possible to ignore having your knee-cap shattered? Apparently so. Ok, another question... why is this guy only a Supreme Commander? He could be the freaking Juggernaut, for all the good all of my efforts so far have had in getting him to freaking die!

Tifa came in for another go at Garland, swinging her leg around. Her foot connected with the man's neck, but it didn't faze him. He turned and tried to get a hit in at Tifa, but with a strength I didn't know she had, she literally threw the man over her shoulder. Garland groaned as his back connected with the rocks, but already, he was getting back to his feet.

I used the distraction to check on the Neo-wannabe. No pulse. Dead. Well that's ok; I have a supply of Phoenix Downs. Pulling out a bottle, I opened it and poured the majority of the liquid down the corpse's throat. After five seconds, colour returned to his face and he started coughing.

"Erg." He groaned, opening his eyes. "A word of advice. Never get your spine shattered. Not pleasant."

"I'll keep that in mind." I nodded, looking behind me.

Red had gotten involved in the fight with the Supreme Commander, but it still wasn't going in our favour. Far from it, it was like we were just an itch that he couldn't scratch. Well, seeing as I have time to aim without him breathing down my neck, I pointed my gunblade and lined up for a shot at his head. I fired.

His head snapped back, and everyone, both ally and enemy paused in their actions.

"Oh, you've **got** to be kidding me!" I cursed.

Supreme Commander Garland Horn just glared at me, still alive despite the bullet hole that was gracing him with its appearance, on his forehead. I swallowed as he swatted Tifa and Red aside and charged at me. I lifted my gunblade, but I wasn't quick enough. He grabbed my neck and threw me over the edge of a particularly steep part of the mountain. Make that, a vertical drop. I grabbed onto the edge, just barely and grunted as my body was forced to follow gravity and connect with the mountainside.

I tried to pull myself back up, but I couldn't find the strength. The appearance of Garland hardly made matters any better, especially after he stamped down on my fingers. I fell.

As I fell, I pushed my hands against the mountain, trying, hoping to find a hand hold. All I succeeded in doing was tearing the scales from my fingers. It didn't improve my condition when something forced my face against the wall, giving it the same treatment. I lashed out with my tail, and whatever it was let go.

When the ground came, I somehow didn't find myself under the standard condition of being a large puddle. Mostly, because whatever had been forcing my face into the wall had redirected what direction the momentum was taking me, so I was going more to the side, and gravity had to start all its hard work all over. That's not to say that my landing didn't hurt though.

I staggered to my feet and looked up in time to witness Garland's fist. I was back on the floor as a result of his punch. I watched as he pulled back a foot before swinging it towards me. Everything went red after that.

My last thought was that I was going to make him suffer.

* * *

I woke up in a very comfortable bed, with no idea how I'd got there. I also felt very... well, I've been high before, so I can't really tell whether I feel high, but I did have a very funny feeling. And the numbness. Everything felt numb. And I don't mean 'someone spilt potion all over my arm' numb, I mean... I don't know what I mean. I also had a foul taste in the back of my throat, one that was familiar, but I had difficulty identifying it.

"You alright?"

I turned my head, and found Red sitting next to my bed, looking concerned.

"Peachy." I grunted, discovering that my throat was feeling like it had been put through a blender.

"Do you remember what happened?"

I frowned, trying to recall.

"No."

"The Shinra retreated because of what you did to the Supreme Commander."

"What I did? The last thing I remember was his boot making friends with my face."

"You are certain you do not remember?"

I shook my head in the negative.

"You ripped his throat out. We presume with a rock."

I ripped Garland's throat out? I really can't remember...

"You were found unconscious. We presume from blood loss, through all of the blood, I could see your skull."

I looked at him, hearing the words, but having difficulty registering them.

"You were lucky they had a Materia with Curaga. Anything less, I doubt they could have repaired the damage. You were also lucky that you didn't lose an eye, not even a Curaja could help with that."

I recognised the taste lingering at the back of my throat. I could taste blood.

"Bathroom." I croaked, and then changed my mind. "Bucket!"

Red paused, and then pulled a pot or something from under the bed. I grabbed it and almost immediately emptied my stomach into it.

"Even with the routine Curagas, you still need to be on medication for at least two weeks."

During a pause in my vomiting, I glanced at Red.

"Medication?"

"The injuries you got, not even a megalixier will stop the pain for good. You lost the scales on your skull! It was luck that you could be healed at all, let alone that it won't leave a scar."

I laughed, lightly, for a few seconds before I had to resume my vomiting.

"Two prescribed painkillers everyday for two weeks. After that, the pain will be bearable. But you have to stop by then, or risk addiction."

I gave him a thumbs p to say I understand; all that I could do, considering that I was still emptying my stomach.

A sigh from my companion.

"I hope you recover soon."

* * *

Turned out that Spike and Montblanc hadn't been able to see anything either. They said there was a memory, but it was being blocked somehow. Like I subconsciously didn't want to know about it. But that can't be right...

I learnt from Tifa later that day that I had been out cold for a couple of days. Not surprising, she'd told me. She also told me that she'd been talking to Antonio. Once I'd recovered enough to walk, we were going to be driven to Junon.

She told me that there was no way she was going to make me walk across the wilderness in my current condition, hence the ride. I agreed, especially when I learnt that it would take precious days off of the journey.

Two days later, and I was in the back of a pickup truck, Red next to me, and Tifa in the passenger seat. The driver was driving carefully, because of a threat Tifa had made, something concerning me. I'm actually rather thankful for the careful driving. The painkillers seem to make me rather prone to throwing up.

They also make me sleepy, so I've been getting more sleep lately then I usually get in a month. Well, small blessings, I suppose. I have mentioned at some point that I'm an insomniac, so the sleepiness is considered a blessing by me.

But even after several days, I've still been unable to get the taste of blood out of my mouth.

I can't help but wonder whether or not it's even **my **blood.


	17. Ninja Brat

Chapter 16: Ninja Brat

I was rudely awoken by a loud bang. Instantly, I shot up to my feet, only to stagger and almost fall over as the blood rushed to my head. Combined with the pain-killers, not pleasant. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out where I was. Oh yes, the back of a pickup truck, going through a forest... wait... why are we going through a forest? If memory serves, on a course straight to Junon, the forest makes a pretty large detour.

Of course, all of those thoughts left me as I leant over the side of the truck and started retching. Oh, look, there's the source of the bang, the tire blew. Already, the driver had stopped the vehicle and was getting out to inspect the tire.

Say... do tires normally have metal studs in them?

The driver noticed the studs and cursed, pulling out a pistol, eyes narrowed.

"Damn Shinra are everywhere." He muttered, looking around he forest. "Someone knew we were coming this way, they laid tacks down."

"I thought tacks were only any good on a hard surface?" I asked, frowning.

"Ground seems hard enough here." He answered. "Keep an eye out."

Red looked around the clearing, taking sniffs of the air, trying to smell out any attacks. Tifa examined the tire.

"Do we have a spare?" She queried. "I want to get moving before a patrol comes and finds us."

"Its in a container on the underside of the truck." The driver muttered, pointing his gun to the side, eyes narrowed. "We're being watched."

"Yes, I can smell whoever it is. Only a single person. Curious."

"Can you find them?" I asked.

"I can only tell that whoever it is, they're in the general direction that our friend is facing."

Tifa grunted, pulling a tire from beneath the truck. The driver turned towards her and lowered the gun, opting to help replace the tire. He started rummaging through a tool box that grabbed from inside the truck and grabbed something. He put it on the ground, near the burst tire and started to fiddle around with it.

"Why are we in the forest, anyway?" I questioned. "I thought we were headed straight to Junon."

"We almost ran into a Shinra convoy. We had to make a detour in order to avoid being seen." Red replied.

"Why was there a convoy way out here?

"Who knows? Maybe it was the remnants of the attack force from Fort Condor."

"Makes sense I suppose."

_Jade, if this is one of your tricks, now really isn't the best time._ I thought to myself, sourly.

"Hey, do you need help?" Tifa asked the driver, who was still tinkering around.

He didn't reply. He just kept up whatever he was doing. Hey, he seems rather quiet all of a sudden.

"Excuse me?" Tifa reached towards the driver. "Hey, you alright?"

As soon as Tifa's hand made contact with the driver's shoulder, the man dropped to the ground, eyes wide open, staring up with a glassy look in his eyes.

I'd been here long enough to know what death looked like. And he was dead.

Tifa gasped, stepping back in shock. I cursed and pulled out Talon, absently wondering why I hadn't already.

Must be the drugs.

Red suddenly snapped his head to look behind me. I followed his example, but all I got to see was a fist before it connected with my forehead. Now, painkillers or no, when someone punches you on a spot that had been lacking all its skin (or scales in my case) not even a week earlier, it's going to hurt. And it did. Quite a lot, I might add.

"Ah, FUCK!" I cried out, staggering back falling off of the truck.

The fall didn't improve my mood any. In fact, it made it considerably worse. I pulled myself to my feet, in time to watch a shadow flicker on the edge of my field of vision. I turned to find it, but couldn't find any traces of the shadow.

"Damn it," Tifa cursed, finding herself being knocked over.

A loud giggling was heard from the trees. Female giggling.

"C'mon out here, you bitch!" I yelled, trying to look in every direction at once.

I got the sensation that whoever was attacking us was pouting, before I was forced to perform a Neo style dodge to avoid multiple throwing stars. The metal stars flew past where my head had been just bare seconds ago, and embedded themselves in a tree trunk. I had barely straightened myself when another barrage came flying at me. Swearing, I dived to the side, rolling under the truck, where I could feel sick in peace.

The sounds of my companions trying to fight the attacker, and failing miserably, did little to improve my mood. Grinning to myself, I looked over the Materia I had in my possession, ready to summon Montblanc and his faithful chocobo companion to hunt down and get rid of the assailant. My grin faded very quickly when I learnt that all, and I do mean, **all** of my Materia was missing. Thieving bitch. At least this tells me who's attacking me. Doesn't mean I plan on going easy on her though.

"Oi, bitch!" I yelled, rolling out from under the truck and pointing my gunblade at the general direction of the attacker. "Stop now or I'll pump you full of lead."

Laughter greeted my ears.

"Call me dumb, but aren't **guns** the weapons that shoot bullets? **Swords **are for waving around and cutting things."

The smug tone of her voice made me smirk. Oh, was she in for a surprise.

"Ok, you're dumb." I answered, before opening fire.

Over the hail of gunfire, I dimly heard the attacker gasp in surprise. Good, she wasn't expecting that little trick. Just what she deserves for stealing my Materia. A second after I ceased fire, I heard a loud thump and a groan of pain. Eh, must have shot her out of a tree. My day is starting to improve. Now, while she's still in shock from my counter-attack, my companions shall hunt her down, while I try to stop the dizzy spell that's trying to attack me.

Upon turning, I found that Red would be out of commission for a while, one of the throwing stars had managed to cut through his front leg's calf muscle or whatever it was called, forcing him to sit back and let it heal with the aid of a couple of potions. Would have been quicker if the bitch hadn't stolen our Materia. Tifa had a nasty cut on her shoulder, but was still in fighting condition. But with Red out, that meant I had to help her with the tracking.

Remember that I just said that my day was starting to improve? Well you may as well forget that I just said that.

"Let's go." Tifa ordered, running ahead.

Groaning, I ran after her, in the direction that we had heard our attacker hit the ground. We reached a clearing, and found the area that the assailant had been. Easy to tell, none of us had had a chance to leave blood in this part of the forest, yet. No sign of the attacker though. Probably healed herself with **our** Materia. Bitch.

A yelp from Tifa had me turning towards her. She wasn't where she was supposed to be. In fact, she was 12 feet above where she was supposed to be. She'd gotten caught in one of those traps that you see all the time in cartoons. I couldn't help it, I just pointed at her and burst out laughing. The martial artist just crossed her arms and glared at me, trying to look as foreboding as she could while suspended upside down in mid-air.

"Once you've finished having fun at my expense, would you hurry up and get me down."

_Once I've finished laughing, sure._ I thought, unable to speak through the laughter.

Finishing up, I took a step towards Tifa, ready to cut her down, ready to start laughing again once she fell to the ground.

_'Behind you!'_

I didn't even hesitate at Spike's warning. I pivoted around, Talon flashing and connected with the over-sized metal cross that would have likely killed me. Yuffie's eyes widened slightly at my quick defence, ruining her otherwise flawless sneak attack. I smirked at her, glad that she had just been forced out of her game and into a level playing field.

"Nice to finally meet you. How about you give us back the Materia you stole from us, and I'll consider letting you live."

The ninja's eyes narrowed, as she stuck her tongue out at me.

"In your dreams." She answered, jumping back, putting some distance between us.

"My dreams don't involve you. If they did, I'd have to shoot myself."

"HEY! Are you saying I'm ugly?"

"Yes, I said you're ugly, so ugly that I'm going to have to wash my eyes in acid just for having seen you." I muttered, sarcastically.

I don't think Yuffie quite heard the sarcasm, because she started glaring at me.

"You're just jealous that I'm the most desirable girl in all Wutai, and you're just some kid who likes dressing up as lizards!"

I blinked, wondering if she was serious about the part about me being a kid who dresses up in a lizard costume. If so, then she has got to be the first person to make that mistake. Oh, I know that the part about her being really desirable was a lie. I think. I mean, while she's not that bad looking, she ain't one of the best looking people I've ever seen either.

_'Stop that train of thought now, before you start entering dangerous territory.' _Spike hissed at me.

_What dangerous territory? I am not about to think romantic thoughts about a video game character. It would be wrong on a small number of levels._

_'Keep your mind focused!'_

Concentrating on the problem at hand, I quickly sidestepped an attack from the ninja, spamming her on the back of her head as she passed.

"Little piece of trivia. This ain't no costume." I informed the brat, bringing Talon into a defensive position.

"As if." Yuffie snapped at me, rubbing the back of her head, where my hand had connected. "You can't fool me."

Sighing, I blocked a blow from her weapon, and batted a throwing star away, and give a very non-human snarl, exposing my sharp, carnivorous, and very REAL teeth. Yuffie stumbled backwards in shock, and I advanced upon her as a predator does to prey. She recovered herself and swung her weapon at me. I slammed my gunblade into it, and her grip was lost from the force, sending it spiralling into a nearby tree. Both me and the ninja looked at the embedded weapon, her in surprise, me in satisfaction. I am definitely improving in my fighting skills.

I held out my hand, looking at Yuffie expectantly.

"Our Materia." I demanded.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes at me, body tense, before relaxing.

"Are you sure you want to hurt me? I think you look cute in that trench coat."

I narrowed my eyes at her, memory flashing to an incident not so long ago.

"You're aware that not even a week ago someone else pulled the same stunt you're doing now. Don't think I'll be falling for it again so soon."

Yuffie pouted, not pleased about her plan failing no doubt.

"Then I'll just have to do... THIS!"

As the brat shouted 'this', her foot came swinging, directly towards an area that had already seen more abuse since I got here then it should ever have. I caught her foot, barely an inch away from downing me. Grinning evilly, I pulled her foot upwards, sending her flying head over heals. The brat climbed to her feet, fuming over how I was besting her at every turn.

"Never thought I'd have to use my skills like this." She mused, making me raise an eyebrow ridge.

"Like what?" I asked, not entirely certain I wanted to know the answer.

Yuffie gave me an evil grin, one that rivalled my own.

"Like thus!" She declared, holding something up.

Wait, that looks familiar...

"Hey, is that my belt?" I asked, already checking my waist for the simple leather belt.

"Shouldn't your jeans be falling to your ankles, giving me lots of time to make a quick get away while you waste valuable time pulling them back up?" She asked, sarcastically.

Rolling my eyes, I half turned around, pointing at my extra appendage.

"Tail." I explained.

The brat pouted at the logical explanation, before looking confused.

"How the hell do you go...?"

I glared at her, not entirely eager to get into the finer details about how I use the bog. Yuffie tried to think of a new way to escape me and my dangerous sword that shoots bullets; while I just held out my hand, waiting for my Materia.

The ninja seemed to come to some conclusion in her head, before sighing, reaching into her pocket. What she pulled out was not a Materia orb though. Oh no, the bitch threw a smoke bomb, and she threw it right in my eyes.

Cursing, I stumbled backwards, rubbing at my eyes furiously, Oh, now she is going to get it when I get my hands on her scrawny neck. Once the smoke cleared, thoughts of vengeance left my mind and I had to smirk. Yuffie was at the tree that her weapon had been embedded into, struggling to pull it out.

"Erg... Come on... stupid thing..." She grunted, tugging at her weapon.

"Need a hand?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah, please..." Yuffie answered, absent mindedly, before remembering her current situation.

She spun around; hands up in a fighting pose. I just pointed my gunblade at her, prompting a gulp from her.

"You know, let's all just forget about this and be friends... right?" She spoke up, giving me puppy eyes.

"Sure." I nodded, smile on my face.

"Really?" Yuffie asked, looking surprised.

"Not until I have my Materia back." I hissed, smile gone from existence.

"Not happening!"

"Then no forgive and forget!"

The ninja glared at me, undoubtedly annoyed that I hadn't fallen for her puppy eyes. Thank god my family have an immunity to that. She should be thankful I'm not my mother; she'd have only gotten angrier at the sight of the puppy eyes.

Yuffie seemed to consider what to do about the sword that thought it was a gun, before coming to a conclusion within her devious mind. She didn't do anything fancy, just a spinning kick that connected with the broad side of my blade, sending it flying... embedding itself into a tree.

"Shit." I cursed.

"Luckily for me, I'm trained in the arts of the ninja, **including** hand-to-hand combat." Yuffie gloated, cracking her knuckles.

"Yeah?" I replied, tensing. "Well I'm trained in the fine arts of kicking your scrawny little ass this side of Sunday."

Yuffie gave me an odd look at my statement, and then looked confused.

"And how do you know whether my ass is scrawny or not... unless..." And she looked outraged at this point. "Unless... YOU'RE A STALKER! YOU'VE BEEN SPYING ON ME!"

"What?" I asked, trying to figure out just how this conversation had gone this way.

The brat didn't reply in the verbal sense of the word, she instead launched herself at me, fists of fury ablaze. I gave a small cry of shock before trying to defend myself. Ok, while she wasn't up to Tifa's or Tia's standards in the hand-to-hand front, Yuffie **is** good. I'm probably going to have another black eye by the end of this.

Jumping back to avoid another spinning kick that probably would have knocked out a tooth or two, I analysed the situation. My friends were either hanging upside down from a tree or injured. I'm no good at melee combat, while Yuffie is. And, I'm getting my ass kicked by a girl, again. And in hand to hand. Yes, the last time, Tia took me by surprise, but that's not the point. The point is, this is humiliating. I had her at gunpoint, well, gunblade point. How did everything go downhill from there?

I ducked under another kick, and rolled aside, trying to move to my gunblade. Another flying kick had me throwing myself to the floor in order to avoid a broken jaw. The miss didn't seem to upset the ninja, if anything, it helped her, since she seemingly bounced off the tree she flew towards and slammed her heel down where my head would have been had I not leapt to my feet.

_'Stop trying to get our weapon, and actually fight her.' _Spike hissed at me, before losing impatience when I suffered a jab that would have broken my nose, had I still been human.

The lizard within took control of our body and flawlessly blocked another jab, before delivering one of his own. I heard a large crack. Yuffie staggered back, hand covering her nose. Despite her efforts to hide it, blood trickled through her fingers.

"I thingk you broge by dose." She moaned, staggering backwards.

I took a hesitant step forwards, not sure whether she was faking the broken nose part to make me lower my defence. It wasn't, but that didn't deter her from continuing our little fight. A word of advice to those of you who take up hand-to-hand fighting, iron palms are only effective against those who have human noses, which I don't. So all that Yuffie's iron palm actually did was leave a nasty bruise between my nostrils. But nothing broken, which was more then I could say for pig-nosed Yuffie.

Cursing, Yuffie renewed her assault, and this time, even with Spike's help, it was all we could do to defend ourselves from the vicious attack. At a whispered suggestion from Spike, I leapt upwards, grabbing onto a tree branch and climbing up. Hah, I'm safe for now... Oh, spoke too soon; it seems that the brat still has a supply of throwing stars. Cursing, I dived from tree branch to tree branch, using my momentum to swing from each one to the next, in a way that would have given the Prince of Persia a run for his money. When I whistling sound that came from the air being sliced by flying metal stars, I finally stopped, and looked around. No sign of the brat, just a very bemused and still upside down, Tifa glaring at me.

"Done playing around?" She asked, arms crossed.

Before I could reply, I felt the tree branch that I was standing on wobble slightly as a new weight landed on it. Slowly turning around, I found Yuffie standing a meter away, still in a fighting posture. I cursed, and was forced to start the fight anew as she launched herself at me. What is this, Crouching Lizard, Hidden Brat? We're fighting on a tree branch, which is somehow supporting our combined weight. Then again, we were both rather lightweight, but that's not the point. The branch should be snapping, not that I'm not thankful that it hasn't.

I know that I'm going to have lots of bruises by the end of this. It didn't help that Tifa was taking up the role of backseat fighter. Honestly, I'd fight better without suggestions coming in from two sources, often conflicting with each other.

"Do a sweep!" Tifa shouted at me.

_'Head butt her!'_ Spike ordered me.

Well, seeing as Yuffie can hear Tifa's suggestions, let's go for Spike's recommendation and slam my forehead into her. Unfortunately, that idea didn't work according to plan, since she chose that moment to do an uppercut. 'I think my chin is going to hate me later', was one of he thoughts that flashed through my mind. The other was 'oh shit' as I fell off of the branch.

I managed to grab onto the branch before I fell to the ground. So there I was dangling from a tree branch with a sniggering ninja brat looking ready to tread on my hand. Well, I'll not give her the satisfaction. Swinging around slightly, I used my free hand to grab Yuffie's ankle and tugged. She gave a short gasp before plummeting to the ground below. I dropped down after her, landing gracefully, like a cat, only more like a lizard, since last I checked, I was a lizard, not a cat.

Yuffie was sitting on the ground, rubbing a grazed elbow, glaring at me, all the while moaning in pain.

"Meanie..." She snarled at me.

"Yes, that's me; now give me back what is rightfully mine."

"We're not done yet." Yuffie smirked, climbing to her feet.

"Look, I've just killed a guy that took a bullet to the head and kept on fighting... I think. Don't continue this, for both our sakes."

Yuffie seemed to consider what I said for several seconds, before nodding to herself.

"Nah." She hummed, readying herself to continue the fight.

I rolled my eyes, groaning as I tensed. I shouldn't have to take this abuse. Stubborn brat should just give up. If Tifa manages to free herself from the snare, then she's got a two-on-one fight that she can't win. I'd have time to pull Talon free from the tree and then we'd have an instant win on our hands. But no, Tifa is still stuck up a tree and I'm still weaponless.

Twisting away from a jab that would have likely winded me, I tried to kick the ninja's leg out. Yuffie instead grabbed my foot and twisted, making me do a corkscrew twist in the air before landing on the ground, air gone from my lungs. Pulling myself to my feet, I took big, gasping breaths. I looked at Yuffie, who was looking undoubtedly smug.

I'm really starting to hate her.

Readying myself for the next round of me being battered, I tried to think of a way to beat her. Maybe I could go for intimidation techniques. I AM a bipedal lizard now, a bipedal _carnivorous _lizard. Yeah, intimidation tactics should work.

"You really don't want to continue this." I told her.

"Oh really?"

"Ya really. I've survived falling down a mountain, a mad berserker with a grudge against me, and I have a feeling that I ripped the berserker's throat out. Can't remember, I blacked out at the time."

"Are you trying to scare me into submission?"

How did she guess?

"Tell you what though." She continued. "I have a surprise for you, if you think you can take it."

Another smoke bomb in the face? No thanks. I tensed myself then leapt at her, planning on using the momentum yo bring her to the ground, where I can pin her down. She can't do anything if she has a large lizard pinning her down. Didn't go according to plan though. She moved aside, and as I sailed through the air, past her, I felt a sharp pain on my upper arm. Rolling to my feet, I glanced at the injuring and found that my flesh had a jagged tear in it, blood leaking through the injury.

Looking up, I saw the culprit. Yuffie had pulled a kunai from out of where ever she kept her equipment and was inspecting it. Oh come on, that's cheating, pulling a weapon out in a fist fight. I was quite vocal on that point.

"Surprise!" She smirked.

"I thought ninjas were supposed to be honourable and all that." I complained.

"No, that's samurai. Ninjas strike from the darkness at the unprepared." Yuffie explained, walking towards me, kunai held at the ready.

Cursing, I moved away from her, not entirely certain how to get at her without being on the wrong end of that weapon. With a yelp, I spun away from her thrust. I got lucky, in that by ding so, I accidentally tail whipped her. Yuffie staggered back, nasty looking welt now covering her cheek.

"Don't blame me; I'm entitled to my self defence." I grinned at her glare, though I was still eying her kunai cautiously.

Yuffie didn't appreciate my rights, obviously, since she charged at me, shouting out a battle cry. I shot my fist out in an attempt at defence. I felt my fist impact against something at the same time that I felt something connect with me face. Both me and Yuffie fell to the ground, in pain. I heard Yuffie groaning as she tried to get up. Tried being the optimum word. I could see a fist print on the opposite cheek from the welted one. She gave up trying after the fifth attempt, and settled for glaring at me.

"I think you fractured my jaw, you jerk." She mumbled at me.

"I'm not the one who wouldn't return what is rightfully mine. If you'd just given back the Materia, we could have gone our separate ways. I would have taken the chance to avoid the pain." I ground out.

"Well, well... I... got nothing..."

Pleased at even this small victory over the brat, I took a try at picking myself up. I was more successful then Yuffie, due to me having a tree for support. Once on my feet, I glared down at Yuffie.

"Now, if you'll just hand over the Materia." I held my hand out expectantly.

Yuffie glared at me, but that glare fell away when Tifa stepped up to us, having somehow gotten herself down from the snare.

"I'd do as he asks." She told Yuffie, giving a much worse glare then Yuffie had managed.

Smiling nervously, the ninja deposited the stolen Materia in my hand. I worked on slotting the gems back into their slots, already feeling the warmth as their magical energies re-entered my body. I then held my hand out again.

"And my wallet. **With** the money still in it, and I know exactly how much I had in it."

The brat grumbled as she pulled out my wallet and gave it to me. I quickly checked its contents. Nothing missing.

"Now my belt." I commanded.

The belt was returned, and as started to loop it around my waist, Tifa looked surprised.

"She had your belt?"

"Apparently she wanted to know whether I wear boxers or briefs." I joked, smirking.

Yuffie complained about that comment, trying to explain the real reason that she stole my belt, but neither me nor Tifa listened, as she checked that her own returned Materia was all there. I held on to the three orbs that had belonged to Red.

"Once I get up, we're going another round." Yuffie declared, pulling herself to her feet.

"Not interested." I told her, moving to Talon and forcing it free from its temporary wooden sheath.

"Thinkin' of running away? What's the matter, you scared of me?" She just got floored and she thinks I'm scared of her?

"Petrified." I muttered, sarcastically.

I think Yuffie has a problem telling when people are being sarcastic, because she certainly took me seriously.

"Hmm, just as I thought. What do you expect with my skills? Good luck to you guys too. If you feel up to it, we can go another round. Later! I'm really gonna leave! REALLY!"

Is she desperate for another round of fighting? I'm not, and while I'm sure Tifa would like to vent some of the anger she's feeling at having been trapped in a snare for however long she was, it would hardly be fair for the ninja. I opted instead for ignoring her, and turned to Tifa, while taking a large gulp from a potion.

"How did you get down?" I asked.

"I chewed the rope." The martial artist grunted.

"Hey, no ignoring me!" Yuffie shouted, getting right in my face.

"Well what do you want me to say?" I asked, rhetorically. "No, please don't go?"

Yet again, she either didn't notice the sarcasm, or ignored it. I think she has selective deafness. If she doesn't want to hear something, she won't, only explanation.

"Don't go? What is it, you still have somethin' for me? ……Hmmm. So is that it? I know you want my help because I'm so good! You want me to go with you?"

"Sure, I could always use a meat shield." I exclaimed in mock joy.

"Hey! I can hold my own; I wiped the floor with you, didn't I?"

"You took me by surprise, and then pulled a kunai on me when we were fighting hand to hand."

"I still almost beat you. If you hadn't gotten that lucky hit in..."

"We don't need you!"

"I don't care; I'm coming with you anyway! I'll prove you wrong and probably save your life while at it!"

I turned to Tifa, hoping she'd take my side on this matter.

"She did fight you to the point where she almost beat you." Tifa said.

"So we let her follow us around? What if she tries to steal our Materia again? What if it's Barret's she steals next time... Wait, yes, let her come, I agree."

Oh, I hope she tries stealing Barret's Materia. I want to be there to watch the results.

"Who's Barret?" Yuffie asked, nervously.

"Friend of ours. You'll get along swell." I grinned, walking back to the truck. "I'll drive."

"You will **not.**" Tifa spoke up, grabbing my shoulder to stop me from continuing. "You're still on pain medication. And you're underage."

"I drove a motorcycle just fine, didn't I?" I grunted.

"Be that as it may, I'm not letting you drive."

Her tone of voice told me that there was no way to convince her otherwise. Sighing, I simply made my way back to the truck and sat in the back, glaring out at the forest. Red had gotten himself patched up, and was waiting for our return. He looked at Yuffie curiously, but didn't voice his thoughts.

"So where are we headed?" Yuffie asked, hopping into the back next to me, finishing off a high potion.

Man, watching her nose repair itself is weird and creepy. Pig nose one second, perfect, good as new nose the next. Creepy.

"Junon, so we can drown you." I responded, rubbing my head.

I think the pain meds are wearing off. Or else the punch Yuffie dealt me was worse then I thought, and only the adrenaline stopped me from noticing.

"Tifa, I need those painkillers." I called out, and had a container tossed at me.

I caught the container and pulled out two of the pills, swallowing them quickly. Yuffie watched curiously, reading the label.

"Vicodin." She read aloud.

Frowning, I turned the container around and read the label myself. Indeed, it was marked as vicodin.

"Isn't this stuff addictive?" She asked, grimacing. "You're a druggy?

"Common side effects include dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, drowsiness, euphoria, vomiting, and constipation. Some less common side effects are allergic reaction, blood disorders, changes in mood, mental fogginess, anxiety, lethargy, difficulty urinating, spasm of the ureter, irregular or depressed respiration and rash." I read, ignoring her. "Well, I suffer the drowsiness and the occasional dizzy spell, but I don't think I've suffered the rest of these."

"You're how old and you're addicted to drugs!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"I'm not addicted. I only started taking these a couple of days ago... you'd need to if you went tumbling of a mountain."

"You were serious?"

"I was thrown off by a Shinra Grand Commander who wouldn't take a hint and die. No, no joke."

Yuffie finally seemed to shut up, as Tifa finished changing the wheel that had been so thoughtlessly left unfinished by the corpse that was our driver.

"How long is this trip going to take?" Yuffie asked suddenly, as the truck started to move.

"Early next morning, give or take a few hours." Red spoke up.

"Oh, God..." Yuffie cursed, looking decidedly green. "I hate modern transport."

And with that she leant over the side and hurled.


	18. Tactical Espionage Action

Chapter 17: Tactical Espionage Action, Final Fantasy Style

I didn't envy Tifa's job as driver. Despite my wanting to drive, the vicodin made my feel tired, and seeing as the drive took all night, you can see why me driving would have been a bad idea. It didn't take me long to fall into a dreamless sleep.

My awakening left much to be desired though.

"Get off of me!" A certain someone yelled in my ear.

I shot up, heart racing. I never react well to someone yelling in my ear at the top of their voices at the best of times. When it's done to wake me up, I'm going to be really cranky. Blinking, I glared at Yuffie, who returned the glare in full force.

"Get off of me!" She repeated.

What does she mean, get off of her... Ah, that's what she meant. In my sleep, I had rolled on top of her. I blame the cramped conditions that are the back of a pickup truck. Grumbling, I picked myself up and hopped off of the truck, now she can't complain, though I'm sure she'll find something to moan at me about later. People usually do.

"Are we there then?" I asked Tifa, yawning.

"We've been here for 3 hours." She yawned, getting out of the truck. "No sense waking you kids up just to look for an inn to fall back asleep."

I ignored the kid comment, stretching, and swallowed the latest dosage of painkillers. So, we're at Junon. I wonder whether our fearless leader has arrived yet. Probably. He's probably in the inn right now, talking to his inner voice. Yawning, I looked at Junon and grunted, pulling a sour face.

"Ugly looking place." I remarked. "Just how useful is that cannon supposed to be?"

"No idea." She replied, looking up at the cannon in question. "I don't think it's ever actually been used before."

I grunted. Well, whatever helps them sleep a night. Junon reminded me a bit of Midgar. It wasn't circular, with sectors, but it did have the same kind of architecture. The poor live at ground level; the rich live in the mostly inaccessible upper levels. Hell, from where I stood, I could see a tower that stood higher then the rest of the city. Not by much, but still just high enough to be recognised as the Junon Shinra HQ. Hard to tell if it's in the centre of the city, but I think it is.

With a deep breath of the fine morning air, I began to trek down the hill to the second biggest city I've ever seen. The first biggest being Midgar, as I'm sure you guessed. I could hear the others following behind me at a steady pace. Any monsters that made a habit of charging at us were quickly warded off, Red casting fire to burn them.

As we approached to coastal city, we could dimly hear trumpets and other musical instruments. From the distance we were from the city, it must have been loud. Probably deafening for the poor saps who were actually in the city. The closer we got, the louder and clearer the music became. By the time we reached the village that was the slums of Junon, I could hear the music as clear as day. Very familiar music.

"What is that noise?" Yuffie complained, holding her hands over her ears.

"It is a miserable monstrosity that is commonly believed to be music." I answered, a frown that wouldn't go away etched over my features.

"What's the occasion?" Red asked, looking miserable.

I don't envy his hearing. I'm suffering enough his my normal human sense of hearing, what he's going through must be torture. However, down the street, someone was bobbing their head in tune with the so-called music.

"Barret! What are you doing?" I shouted out.

Yuffie looked at who I was shouting at and gulped, learning just who Barret was, and why I'd made the comment about loving to see her try to steal his materia. The Mr T wannabe looked up and grinned at the sight of us, though he frowned slightly at the sight of Yuffie. Probably wondering who he hell she was.

"Yo!" He greeted.

"Where's Cloud?" Tifa asked.

Barret pointed at an inn we'd passed by.

"He still hasn't woken up." He informed us.

Tifa nodded absently, walking to the inn in question, Yuffie, Red and myself watched her go, all three of us with a knowing smirk.

"She's blatantly in love with this Cloud guy, isn't she?" Yuffie asked.

"That would be a 'yup'." I grinned.

"Though the only people who don't seem to know are Cloud and Tifa themselves." Red commented.

"Love is blind." I mused, striking a pondering pose.

"What's this about love?" Aeris asked, walking up behind us.

Red and me coughed, embarrassed. What do we say to the other girl who loves Cloud? Yuffie must have read our uncertainty, because she didn't say anything. Red turned to Aeris, nodding.

"Nothing. Just, musing..."

Aeris gave the three of us a look, the look lingering on Yuffie, before turning to see Cloud walking out of the inn with Tifa. Cloud's gaze lingered on Yuffie for a couple of seconds, but Tifa said something, we were too far away to hear what, but it was probably explaining that Yuffie was now following us around like a lost puppy.

Then, from out of the blue, I was knocked aside by a blur, and from the sound of Yuffie grunting, she had shared a similar fate. When I look to the side, Red was the only one still standing. Typical. Following the blur's trail, I found a young girl, probably a year or two younger then myself, speaking at the speed of light to Cloud, who's eyes were looking dazed, as he tried to keep up with what the girl was saying. She was speaking loudly; I could hear her voice echoing through my skull. She was like a banshee, god, that voice will melt my brain if it doesn't stop.

I did manage to pick up snippets of the one-sided conversation; Shinra was mentioned once or twice, a thank you and that she'd give him something special, before she finally stopped talking and handed Cloud a red orb. A summon Materia.

Ah, so that's Priscilla. And that Materia was Shiva.

The girl walked off, allowing the blonde swordsman to equip his new Materia, and come over to the rest of us. The swordsman gave Yuffie a look, before checking that he had all his Materia, prompting an indignant groan from the ninja in question.

"What's with this music?" He groaned, after several seconds, frown etched on his face. "I can barely hear myself think."

"If you think it's bad here, try listening to it inside the city proper." Red responded, looking up at the wall that marked the end of the village and the beginning of the city.

Cloud pulled a face, thinking on that for a brief moment.

"I think I'll pass, if it can be avoided." He grunted, massaging his forehead.

Another look at the group, and he started headed in the general direction of the banshee. Barret and I followed after him, sharing a look of concern. He seemed out of it, like he hadn't properly woken up. And he kept massaging his forehead.

Cloud led us to the beach, where Priscilla stood, staring out to sea. Cloud moved towards her, considering what to say, but Barret beat him to the punch.

"What's that music? It sure sounds lively."

The girl jumped slightly, turning around and spotting the black man.

"I heard that they're rehearsing the reception for the new Shinra president." She said, before turning back to the sea.

"Rufus!? I gotta pay my respects." Barret growled.

"You can do that after I've gotten compensation for his ruining my last coat." I grunted, still fuming at the amount my replacement coat had cost me.

Priscilla ignored us, just gazing out to sea. If she were standing on the edge of a cliff, that would make the image I'm seeing look all the more cheesy.

"Grandpa and grandma told me this beach was beautiful when they were small." The girl spoke up after a minute, not really to any of us present. "But after the Shinra built that city above, the sun stopped shining here, and the water got polluted… I was raised on that story and hate Shinra so much, I could die!"

Halfway through that monologue, the rest of the group arrived on the beach. There was a long silence again, before Aeris decided to cut through it.

"You think Rufus is thinking about crossing the ocean from here, too?"

Tifa looked up, frowning, before giving a responding question.

"What? Does that mean Sephiroth already crossed the ocean?"

"We gotta get to the town up there… Mebbe we could climb the tower?" Barret mused, looking at the tower jutting out of the water about 50 yards away.

"No! No!" Priscilla snapped, turning around sharply. "There's a high voltage current running underneath the tower. Don't wander near it, it's dangerous! But…you might be able to if Mr. Dolphin helps you."

"High voltage tower…" Tifa mused, before looking up, smiling. "…I guess this means Cloud'll be all right."

"Yeah, better leave it to Cloud!" Aeris agreed.

Looking mildly amused, Red jumped aboard the bandwagon. "We're counting on you, Cloud!"

I wasn't about to be left out.

"Better you then me." I smirked.

Cloud looked distressed at our conscripted him for the dangerous task of climbing a high voltage tower. "Hey! Wait a second!"

Everyone but myself and Barret scattered to who knows where. Cloud was fuming at our apparent betrayal, but then sighed in resignation. He knew when he was beat. He turned to Priscilla, nodding at her to show whatever she wanted to show. The girl pulled a whistle out of her pocket and blew on it.

At the sound of the whistle, a dolphin leapt out of the water and did a flip, before landing gracefully back under water.

"Now ain't that something! I ain't never seen no Dolphin jump like that!"

I was inclined to agree. The closest I'd ever seen was in Free Willy, when the whale leapt over the kid in that now famous scene. But that was a whale, not a dolphin.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Priscilla grinned. "When I blow this whistle, Mr. Dolphin jumps for me. Here!! This is for you, Cloud!"

Cloud accepted the whistle, looking confused. God, our fearless leader can really be clueless sometimes.

"A gift? What am I supposed to do with it!?" He asked, looking at the silver whistle in his hand.

"Just go into the water, blow this whistle and Mr. Dolphin'll jump you to the top of the pole!" The girl explained.

"Jump to the top of the pole?" Still, the blonde was confused.

"See that rod sticking out at the top?" Priscilla pointed at a pole about 15 feet up the tower. "If you jump just right, you can climb to the top of the town."

Barret and I laughed at Cloud's face as he stared up at the pole he was to get to, eyes wide.

"What did I get myself into?" He asked himself, pulling his sword free from it's harness and passing it to Barret. "This'll just weigh me down. Look after it."

Barret accepted the Buster Sword, stabbing it into the sand.

"Good luck Cloud!" He grinned. "If you make it, we'll follow you! Whoa, I'll hold the PHS for you. It'll break if it gets wet."

Cloud handed over his phone, and Barret pocketed it, before grabbing the Buster Sword and resting it against his shoulder. Cloud dived into the water and put the whistle to his lips.

"Wish me luck." He muttered, before blowing.

The dolphin swam under Cloud and then changed course and swam upwards, jumping from the water and throwing Cloud while at it. The swordsman gave a small yelp of surprise, but it was cut short when he slammed into the pole.

I winced in sympathy as he groaned in pain, slowly pulling himself up. That probably took the breath right out of him. Once up on the pole, he gave half hearted wave and sluggishly moved to the ladder that would raise him into the city. I turned to Barret, who was laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"You don't expect me to do that... right?" I asked.

He stopped laughing, though his eyes would regularly move to where Cloud had hit the pole and would snigger.

"No, I wouldn't put you through that, we don't..." His smile left his face as a new thought hit him. "We don't have the whistle anymore, so we can't, even if we want to."

_'Oh look, a flaw in our plan. Hands up those who spotted it coming.' _Spike hissed in my ear.

"So how do we get ourselves inside the city?" I asked, irritated.

Priscilla, who had been listening, turned to us.

"You could try the elevator." She pointed out. "But its guarded, and the guard reports regularly."

Both Barret and I frowned, trying to think up a new plan.

"How about we bribe him." I suggested. "Offer him a hundred gil, and he might let us up, no questions."

Barret gave me a look that spoke volumes about what he thought of that idea. The thing was, he couldn't think up any better, and he sighed, realizing that bribery might be the only way to go.

"It was yer idea, you go bribe him, while I round the others." He grunted, stalking off.

"But I don't know where the elevator **is**!" I shouted after him.

Either he didn't hear me, or he didn't care. He soon vanished from my sight. Sighing, I turned to banshee girl, who was examining me.

"Why do you wear that lizard costume?" She asked, after a brief moment of silence.

If I were an anime character, I'd have done one of those weird faints that they do when stupefied by something. However, I'm not, so therefore I didn't. I merely groaned, bringing my face to my palm.

A few minutes later, I was at the elevator, Priscilla buggering off to show the rest of the group where it was. I looked at the guard and narrowed my eyes. The idiot was asleep, how the hell did he not expect people to take advantage?

I therefore jumped when he straightened himself suddenly, and brought a radio to his mouth.

"Nothing to report." He spoke into it, before falling asleep again.

Ok... that was odd. Strange man...

Shrugging to myself, I walked up to the snoozing man and stood in front of him. As if he sensed my presence, he opened his eyes, blinking rapidly to get the sleepiness from his eyes. Once he could see clearly, he experienced a prime view of my handsome mug... and he panicked.

"Ahh!" He screamed. "Don't eat my soul!"

_'Charming.' _Spike sniggered in my mind.

Well... this could be used to my advantage.

"Let me and my friends use this elevator, and I'll spare your soul."

The man nodded at a grand speed of several miles per hour. Any faster, and I doubt he'll still have a head to nod with.

"Good. However, if you tell anyone of this encounter, I **will** come back for you."

Maybe I went a little too far... the guy just wet himself.

Flinching, I backed away slightly, sighing. Well, at least I had a ride. Giving the guard a weary glance, I stepped past him and into the elevator.

"Remember to let my companions up." I reminded him. "They'll be the ones with a huge guy with a swearing problem."

The doors shut, blocking the sight of the nodding guard. Grunting, I hit the button on the control panel, raising the elevator. It slowed as it neared the top of the shaft, grinding to a halt at the door that'd let me into the city. I opened the door and took a peek, only to jerk my head back.

_Great, lots and lots of Shinra troops. That really makes my job easier. _

Frowning in thought, my eyes rolled across a cardboard box, laying in the corner. Smirking slightly, I grabbed it.

Hey, it worked for Solid Snake, who's to say it won't work for me?

Well, that was my mentality, at least. Propping the box over my head, I crouched down, hiding myself within it. The perfect disguise. Now that that was done, I opened the door and crawled out, laughing to myself at the obliviousness of the guards. Now all I had to do was find my way to the docks.

"Huh... What was that?" A voice said.

Cursing, I stopped moving and pretended to be an ordinary cardboard box. A trooper moved up to me and peered at the box that was my disguise, frowning.

"Just a box." he eventually declared, moving away.

I took several steps away from the guard, trying to navigate the streets. Damned city was like a maze; at least, it was while I was hiding in a box that hindered my view somewhat. I stopped at the sight of a large, and I mean **large** group of Shinra thugs moving towards me.

I'm cursed, I have to be. There is no other explanation for my stumbling into the path of the parade.

The parade ignored the box that was me, believing it to be an ordinary box. I mean, who goes around examining every single cardboard box they come across in detail? Bringing my eyes to the hole, I watched the parade, trying to ignore a horrible feeling that had crept up on me.

_'You realize that you need the toilet, don't you?' _Spike laughed.

The bastard... I was trying to ignore it. Now that it has my attention, it feels that much worse. It didn't help matters that he started to make sounds associated with water falling. Is he **trying** to make me wet myself?

My mind was drawn away from my dilemma when I noticed a group of soldiers at the mouth of an alleyway. Even though he was dressed in the typical generic soldier uniform, it was easy to tell Cloud apart from the others. His hair peeked out from under his helmet.

One by one, the soldiers joined the parade, marching into an opening in the formation and acting as if nothing had gone wrong. However, it took Cloud two attempts before he managed to actually get into an opening.

Another couple of minutes, and then the end of the parade was in sight. Another full minute of soldiers marching past me, and then it was over. No more parade. Cue the victory fanfare.

Now if I could just find a toilet, I'll be happy.

_'Rain rain rain comes down down down...'_

_Spike... Shut up!_

* * *

Sighing in relief, I exited the public toilet, grabbing the box from where I'd left it. Getting back into my disguise, I started along the street, hopelessly lost. I'd spent a quarter of an hour just wondering around searching for the bog, and in the process had completely lost track of where I was.

Damned city should include a map, then this sort of thing wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, in all my inner ranting about the lack of a map, I wasn't watching where I was going. As a result, I walked into someone.

"Ow, hey, watch it!"

_I know that voice._

Looking through the hole I found myself looking up at a certain female Turk. Tia was looking around, trying to find someone, a suspicious frown gracing her features.

"Who ya looking for, Tia?" Another familiar voice asked, with a yawn.

Reno walked into my field of vision, stretching.

"Whoever just threw this box at me!" Tia growled, glaring at the box in question.

"You're imagining things." Reno muttered, shaking his head. "This is an empty street, no one to throw any boxes at you."

"Well this box wasn't here a minute ago." Tia insisted, giving my cardboard armour a kick.

"What are you suggesting?" Reno smirked, starting to walk away. "That the box just walked here by itself?"

The female gave the retreating redhead a glare, before turning to follow him. I took that opportunity to try and walk away, unnoticed. I think Tia must have sensed the boxes movements though, because she gave a yell that told me that I'd just been caught.

This is the point where I move as quickly as I can into a random alley and hope that she doesn't find me. Or maybe...

Smirking at my great planning skills, I skid into an alley and ditch the box, making sure it was still upright though. I then slid into the shadows, trying to hide. Barely a second passed before Tia flew into the scene, quite literally. Her flying kick connected with the box and sent it flying. Reno slid in just after her, and burst out laughing at the sight of the empty box being kicked.

"Smooth." He smirked, putting away his rod. "Way to tell that box its place."

Tia growled, teeth grit as she tried to set the box alight with the power of her mind alone. Reno couldn't stop laughing. He started to walk out of the alley, not even trying to contain with amusement.

"Well, I'll be at the usual place. Once you've finished chasing your own shadow, meet up with the rest of us."

And with that, Reno was gone. Now, I'm alone with the woman who had completely thrashed my team not so long ago. Smirking, I unsheathed my gunblade and crept up on the bitch. She didn't suspect a thing until the blunt side of my blade connected with the back of her skull. The Turk fell to the ground, out like a like light.

Now, how to stop her from alerting the rest of the city that she got attacked? At least until AVANLANCHE was out of the city... oh, that's easy. Prevent her from being able move until some random person finds her. And to do that...

Grabbing her unconscious form, I sighed and began to undo her belt. Once I had the belt removed from her, I used it to bind her arms to her sides and then used her tie to bind her feet together. There, now she can't move... But she still has her voice. That could be a problem... Unfortunately, I couldn't think of any way to block out her voice, and so simply tossed her into a nearby dumpster and left it at that. I'm probably going to regret doing this later, but for now, I'm going to relish in my victory, I managed to knock out a Turk who took down a three person team. And tossed her in with the garbage.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to regret this later.

* * *

I eventually found my way to the dock. Well, that wasn't exactly true, more like I was taken to the dock. Turned out my cardboard armour was mistaken for something needed to be on the cargo ship that was due to leave today. And I was thus taken to the ship in question.

It wasn't a very glamorous looking thing. In fact, it was downright ugly. And crawling with Shinra troops. Lots of them. Oh God... I feel sea sick already. I'm going to be forced to stay in the hold, no fresh air, just claustrophobic conditions.

Once the coast was clear, I ditched the cardboard box and instead hit in a small crevice formed by the stacks of crates. I could see out, but unless they knew what to look for, nobody would be able to see me. After a small while of waiting, The rest of AVALANCHE, minus a certain blonde, walked aboard, all dressed in disguises.

_Wait, is that Red? _I asked myself, at the sight of the very odd looking Shinra soldier, who was sort of dancing on the spot.

It was; the furry snout coming out of the helmet was a giveaway. The group sort of stood around briefly, before nodding amongst each other, and going their separate ways. Yuffie and Red stayed near the loading ramp.

"I wonder when Spike and Cloud'll get aboard." Yuffie said, eyes scanning the docks. "Hopefully they won't miss the ship."

Red gave a short nod, but turned to look at where I was hidden. Smirking, I crept out from my little hiding spot and stood behind the ninja.

"I'm sure neither will miss the boat." Red assured the brat, through his face had what I had learnt to be a smirk.

"I'm pretty damned sure that I won't miss the boat." I boomed out, clamping a hand down on Yuffie's shoulder.

The ninja jumped, barely suppressing what was probably a scream. She turned to face me, fist raised. Looking peeved as me and Red burst out laughing.

"Oh, real funny! That's really mature!" She ground out.

"You're one to talk about maturity." I countered.

The ninja opened her mouth to make a retaliatory comment, but Red looked out at the dock, sharply, bringing our attention to him.

"Rufus is coming." He warned us.

Since I wasn't in a disguise, not like any but the cardboard box would actually work with me, I crept back into my hidey hole, safe from prying eyes. Since Red's disguise was less then perfect, he also hid, taking cover inside an open crate.

From my vantage point, I could see Rufus walk in after a large group of troopers, one of whom had blonde hair sticking out from under his helmet. The soldiers performed a reception for Rufus, ending with a very familiar move. Y'know, we're really lucky that Rufus never saw Cloud doing his victory move, else our cover would be blown. As it was, he just looked very impressed.

"Well done. Keep up the good work for Shinra, Inc." He said, taking a step forwards.

He nodded to Heidegger, who grabbed a bundle and handed it to Cloud.

"Gya haa ha…!! Here's a special bonus for you!! A token of the President's kindness! Don't forget it!"

Rufus turned to Heidegger, and began speaking, ignoring the soldiers.

"Once the world gets out that Sephiroth's here, Cloud and his friends will show up, too." Rufus said.

_'We're already here.'_

"We'll crush them as soon as we find them!" Heidegger gloated.

"We can't have them get in our way." Rufus nodded.

"Leave it up to me, sir!" The fat man laughed.

"I thought I told you to stop that stupid laugh…" The new president sighed.

The fat man gave a sound of dissatisfaction, venting his frustration on a couple of the troopers. Once he was done and had left the area, following his President, the commander of the troopers shouted out a dismissal.

I stopped listening after that, it wasn't really anything important. After a while, the ships horn blew, warning everyone that it was due to leave soon. Cloud quickly hopped up the boarding ramp, obviously not eager to be left behind.

Not long after that, the ramp raised itself, and the ship took off.


	19. Costa Del Sol

Chapter 18: Costa Del Sol

I groaned in pain as Cloud and Tifa helped me leave the cargo ship. Through my one eye that wasn't blindfolded by the makeshift bandages, I could see that Costa Del Sol was indeed a picture of paradise. Too bad I was in too much pain to really enjoy it.

"C'mon, there has to be a clinic somewhere around here." Yuffie spoke up, constantly turning to look at me in concern.

Scratch that, all of AVALANCHE was constantly turning to look at me in concern. It was actually really, really annoying. Aeris had said that I was guaranteed to survive, so why all the excess concern? Not that I'm unappreciative though. The fact that they care for my well being so much is kind of flattering. But please, give me my space. Tifa and Cloud excluded, since they were the ones half carrying me, since I could barely walk without support.

The extent of my injuries?

Let's just say that I'm lucky I still have two eyes intact. Though the cut over the right eye will never truly heal, at least it had left the eyeball alone.

This wouldn't be a problematic injury under any other circumstances. The thing that made it problematic, was the fact that neither potions, Materia, nor Aeris' healing abilities were actually healing the injuries I had received. Hence the makeshift bandage. Course, the cut over my eye wasn't the only one, but it had been the one that was bleeding the most.

"Red, Yuffie, you two go ahead and try to find a clinic." Cloud ordered.

The two in question nodded, and then vanished. I was led to a seat and sat down.

"Don't close your eyes." Aeris told me, trying to use her healing skills again. "You still have a concussion."

And concussions, I had learnt, had to recover through time, since they weren't affected by most healing techniques.

Maybe you'd understand more if I told you what had happened earlier.

* * *

**Two hours ago**

* * *

I groaned, loudly, leaning against the ninja in disguise. Yuffie, in response, groaned back. Sea sickness... one of those things I could do without. This wouldn't be so bad if I were up on deck, breathing in the fresh sea air. I don't get motion sickness when I have fresh air on my side. There **is** a reason I stick my head right out of the window of a car, after all.

Yuffie and I sat, side by side, a single bucket being all we had to throw up in.

We were a pitiful sight. Both of us were green, well, a different shade of green in my case, but that wasn't the point. The point, I feel like crap, and for once, Yuffie was in complete agreement with me. We both felt like crap, and there was nothing either of us could do about it. Well, almost nothing. I could still take some vicodin, which had the side effect of sleepiness. A blessed side effect, since when I'm asleep, nothing can hurt me. Not figuratively, at least.

However, the pain killers took a **fine** (sarcasm) time to not induce sleepiness. No... they just made me throw up quicker. I hate my life...

Cloud offered a little sympathy, when he checked us out, in our little hidey hole. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought to buy any tranquillizers when he was in town. Dumb blonde. Red had danced by a couple of times to check up on me, being the loyal friend. Though I have a feeling that he's amused by our plight.

Traitor.

It was a small blessing when I actually managed to fall asleep. Well, I sort of fell asleep. You know that sleep where you are actually asleep, but you're still vaguely aware of events going on around you? Yeah, that's what I was doing. I could hear Yuffie's moaning and puking, but I was actually asleep despite it.

Not that it lasted for more then half an hour. No, my luck would never grace me with such a blessing. Instead I got an earful of alarm. It took all of my willpower to refrain from shooting my gunblade at the speakers that were blaring out that god awful racket. Regrettably, the lack of shooting meant a lack of venting my grumpiness. That meant I wasn't very pleasant to be around.

Sucks to be Yuffie, who received a face full of glares that had the power to shatter glass... well, they almost have the power to shatter glass.

The ninja brat flinched at the glare and stood up, putting on her stolen uniforms helmet, completing her disguise.

"I'll check with the others, see what the noise is all about." She declared, before making a hasty retreat.

I'm offended. My 'just woken up' face wasn't that bad, was it?

I'd have given anything to have followed after her, just to go up on deck. Just to be able to **move **around. Sitting in this place is boring, and it makes me want to pace back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

You get the picture.

But no, because I'm the unlucky sod that fuses with his pet lizard, disguises are wasted on me. Well, except for the cardboard box, but that's a useless disguise on deck. Dunno why, Cloud just said so. Damned fusion.

Spike spoke up, grumbling. _'And what is wrong with fusing with me?'_

_Nothing, nothing. _I mentally waved a white flag. _Just annoyed at certain restrictions that come as a price._

Sighing, I put my hands behind my head, trying to get comfortable. \it was a sound plan. It could even end with my falling asleep again. Well, I **can** always hope, can't I?

**'Emergency alert! Reports of a suspicious character found! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found! I repeat. Suspicious character found on board! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found!'**

Well, that was certainly an interesting way to tell the crew of an intruder. And alerting the intruder to the fact that he or she has been caught while at it. Stupid Shinra. They make things so difficult for themselves.

I sat up sharply at a sound that had become familiar from my time around Cloud. A blade slicing through flesh. And if that hadn't done the job of fully awakening me, then the screaming would have. Quickly unsheathing Talon, I stood up, forgetting my previous sickness, a feet helped by the adrenaline that started pumping through my system.

Exiting my hidey hole, I caught sight of a Shinra commander, crawling backwards, shivering. He had a terrified expression on his face, eyes so wide; I was surprised that they didn't fall out of the sockets. He must have seen me from the corner of his eye, because he quickly turned his head around to face me.

"Oh Gods... not another one..." He stuttered, just before a long blade stabbed itself through his throat.

He gagged, still alive, though barely. The blade drilling through his throat was a fatal wound though. He would choke to death from his own blood. Shaking my head, I pointed my gunblade at his head and fired, ending his suffering.

A bitter mercy.

The blade pulled itself from the commander's neck. I heard several footsteps, before the wielder of the blade spoke.

"Show yourself."

The voice sent shivers down my spine, and I could feel Montblanc withdrawing from my mind, returning to the Materia. Spike seemed to crawl as far into my mind as possible, trying to get away. He was incoherent.

The voice alone had terrified them both. Maybe its an instinct thing. Humans, and I **am** still partially human, didn't have as good instincts as most other creatures when it came to being cornered by a predator. We're too used to being the number one predator ourselves.

I stepped out from behind the crates and faced the attacker. Glowing emerald eyes examined me, from the moment I entered his field of vision. Despite all the blood that was spread over the room, there was not a drop f the red liquid on anywhere on his person. His clothes looked as if they had never even been tarnished before.

Sephiroth had a faint smirk on his lips, seeming to reach a conclusion from his examination.

"What a fascinating creature you are." He said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd have believed you to be a Laixiu, but they're just a myth."

"Stories have to be based on something, do they not?" I replied.

The silver haired swordsman's smirk grew.

"Indeed."

Sephiroth flicked his wrist, and I was forced to step back, or be cut by the tip of the Masamune. That is a very long sword. Lengthwise, it puts Cloud's to shame, but then it was a difference of style. The Masamune, despite its ridiculous length, was still a katana, a sword with grace in mind. The Buster Sword is a complete contrast. As a great sword, its design was to power through the enemy, and whatever defences they have. Though Cloud can use his sword gracefully, when the occasion calls for it, (though I've only seen him using it gracefully when we win a fight) he does tend to rely far more on power over speed.

"However." Sephiroth continued. "The Laixiu were never depicted as sentient creatures. Intelligent yes, but not sentient. So, that leaves the question of what you are..."

I snorted, bringing Talon into a defensive position.

"Tell me when you find out." I grunted.

The former-General's attention was drawn to my blade, and an eyebrow raised in interest.

"Ah, I see now." He nodded. "Shepard's child. He always did say that you were... different. How true that statement was."

He could tell that by my choice in weapon? I thought he was a master swordsman, not Professor Xavier. Sephiroth continued to examine me, and took a step forwards, swinging his katana into his battle pose.

Now, let's see if I can figure out any weaknesses he might have. Well, I can see one right away. The Masamune is a mid-range weapon. If I get right up to him, he won't be able to use it as effectively. Course, him being the master swordsman, he'll still be difficult, even at close quarters. And that's assuming I can slip past his guard, which is probably going to be nearly impossible.

Me, being the impatient git I am, made the first move. I hopped back, aiming Talon at the silver haired swordsman. My finger pulled the trigger five times, but only the first shot even went anywhere near the intended destination. The Masamune had connected with the side of my gunblade and threw my aim completely off. Damned katana... that sword is way to long to even consider using the gun features of Talon at this range.

Sephiroth leapt forwards, and seemed to glide towards me, Masamune already swinging in a wide arc. Spike forcibly took control of my body and sent me spinning sideward, barely avoiding the slash. When I landed, I had to waste a few precious seconds trying to regain my balance, before giving a mental shout of 'screw it' and did a backwards roll to avoid another slash from the silver haired general. I wasn't quite fast enough though, and he managed to catch my thigh. Not a massive wound, just a scratch. But it's the principle of the thing. He managed to slice me. I can't let him get away with that.

"Oi, mamma's boy!"

You know, this probably ranks right up there with throwing Tia in the dumpster on the list of things I'm going to regret doing. I'm probably going to regret calling Sephiroth a mamma's boy very quickly, if the fire that had just ignited in his eyes is any indication.

_'I'm too young to die!' _Spike cried. _'And I'm still a virgin! Jethro, I'm going to die as a virgin because you couldn't keep your mouth shut!'_

_Shut up, Spike. I don't need, nor want to know of some things. The state of your virginity is one of them._

Blocking out the lizard within's response, I focused on trying to defend myself from the homicidal swordsman. Not as easy as one might guess. Especially not when he's charging at you, full speed.

I swung my gunblade into the Masamune, blocking the blade before it could sever my head from my body. The satisfaction in knowing that I had survived outweighed the pain in my arms from blocking a slash that had a lot of force behind it. Still did, it was becoming a struggle to keep his blade at bay, I could feel my arms quivering, barely able to keep the opposing force at bay.

Gritting my teeth, I kicked out at Sephiroth, but partway through the kick let my other leg collapse under me, and the force of the kick sent me sliding away from the general. As far away from Sephiroth as my lame slide would take my, I leapt to my feet, already bringing Talon into a defensive stance. Almost immediately, Sephiroth's blade slammed into my gunblade, with enough force to send it flying. I didn't stop to ponder this turn of events. The moment my weapon had left my grip, I cast Fire, throwing a fireball at Sephiroth. The silver haired swordsman sidestepped the flame, flicking his wrist.

I ignored the bite of the Masamune as it sliced through the outer muscles of my right arm as I dove for my fallen weapon. The cut was deeper then the one he'd managed to put on my thigh. Still no big deal though. Nothing a potion couldn't deal with. Grabbing my blade from where it had fallen, I turned back to face Sephiroth, only to stumble back, my breath taken, forcefully, from my lungs. Sliding down an oversized metal crate, I stared at myself in disbelief. Where had all these other injuries come from? I only remember the two cuts, but my arms were riddled with them.

A shadow fell across me. Gulping, I looked up at the figure of Sephiroth. The former general lifted his sword and swung it downwards. I jerked my head back, in a vain attempt to save myself. It was probably that act that saved me from losing my right eye. As it was, I had a cut starting from my eyebrow ridge to half an inch from under my eye, only a small gap in the middle where the tip of the Masamune had missed my eye.

Yelling out in pain, I put my hands over the latest injury, in a vain attempt at stopping the blood that was pouring from the wound. Sephiroth looked at me, raising his weapon again, but jerked his head upwards, looking at the ceiling. After a couple of seconds just staring, the general turned and moved through a door in the back of the cargo hold.

A minute later, I was greeted by the sounds of hurried footsteps. I looked up, removing one hand to search my pockets. A found what I was looking for just as Cloud rounded the corner, followed closely by Barret, Yuffie and Aeris.

"Spike!"

I couldn't tell who it was that yelled out my name. I was too busy trying to open a vicodin container with one hand. Not easy, considering the fact that the container is child-proof. Somehow I managed it, and swallowed two of the pills that the container held.

"What happened?"

"Some maniac with a big ass katana was racist against lizards." I mumbled, looking up at Cloud.

Cloud narrowed his eyes.

"Sephiroth..." He growled. "Where did he go?"

"Oh, that's kind." I snapped, angrily. "No sympathy for the lizard, just a demand for the whereabouts of Sephiroth."

Cloud winced at my tone of voice, probably not used to hearing me angry. And certainly not when it was directed at him. Barret raised an eyebrow in surprise as well. Shaking her head, Aeris cast cure on me.

Nothing happened. No cuts healed themselves. Nothing.

Barret and Yuffie gaped. Aeris frowned and started to use Healing Wind.

Again, no result.

"It's useless." Cloud spoke up. "Sephiroth's sword, the Masamune, inflicts wounds that can't be healed. Something about the blade being pure."

"Pure 'what' is debatable." I hissed.

Cloud frowned as I removed my hand from my eye and tried to pick myself up. No luck, my strength seemed to have abandoned me.

"Yuffie, stay with Spike. Spike, where did Sephiroth go?"

"In the engine room." I told him, pointing at the door Sephiroth had left through.

Cloud nodded, turning to the door. Aeris and Barret followed him. Yuffie knelt down beside me, inspecting my injuries.

"You got lucky with that injury over your eye." She spoke up, running a finger alongside the cut. "Even with a regular weapon, if it had taken your eye out, nothing could have bought it back."

"I'll keep that in mine next time I challenge someone with a sword. No letting them near my good-looking face." I smirked.

"You wish." Yuffie laughed. "But still, we need to bandage that injury. Head wounds tend to bleed more then other injuries."

As she spoke, Yuffie brought her hand to the odd sleeve thing she wore and gave it a sharp tug, tearing it off. I watched her, confused, as she tore it into long strips. Once she was satisfied with her work, she started to wrap one such strip around my head, covering the injured eye.

"I'm shocked." I spoke up. "I didn't think you'd know how to be a medic."

"I'm confident in my skills, yes, but I'm not stupid." Yuffie answered. "Injuries happen, and becoming dependant on Materia and potions won't do you much good if you run out of potions and are too exhausted to use a cure Materia."

Huh, learn something new every day. While Yuffie worked on bandaging me up, I could faintly hear the sounds of fighting coming from the door that Cloud and co. had exited through.

"That cut will leave one heck of a scar." Yuffie commented.

"Just what I always wanted, a scar covering my eye." I muttered, sarcastically.

"Just be thankful it didn't take out your eye itself." Yuffie reprimanded. "Otherwise, I'll have to accuse you of copying Red."

"Y'know, he never did say how he lost his eye."

"Something to ask him once you're feeling better."

I grunted, feeling my eye drooping. The ninja must have noticed, because she smacked my arm, hard.

"Don't close your eyes." She commanded.

"Odd, the one thought that ran through my head during the whole fight... 'Jethro, I'm going to die a virgin because you couldn't keep your mouth shut'."

"Jethro?" Yuffie asked, confused at the unfamiliar name.

"'S my name isn't it? Jethro 'Spike' Logan..."

"Nice name. Parents fans of Jethro Tull then?"

I was about to answer in the affirmative, but stopped myself, remembering that in this world, I had no parents.

"Wouldn't know. I was found and raised by a former SOLDIER and a guy that puts even me to shame in the whole unique looks front."

Yuffie looked apologetic at the thought that she'd just spoken of my being an orphan.

"How can you be beaten on the unique looks aspect of life?" The ninja asked, changing the subject.

"Let me paint a picture for you. He has one big red eye, with lots of little ones around it, and a third arm sticking out of his chest. Oh, and on an unrelated note, he can shoot electricity without Materia."

"Ah. I suppose that would make anyone feel normal, compared to such an unusual look." Yuffie swallowed.

I laughed lightly, wincing as the ship's intercom spoke up.

**'Dock workers-- We will be docking in Costa Del Sol in 5 minutes. Prepare for docking.'**

I looked up at the ceiling, confused. I couldn't seem to think straight. When Cloud exited the engine room, I didn't hear what was said; I just stared at the ceiling. Eventually, I felt myself being hoisted up and was half carried.

I only became aware of my surroundings again, after we'd left the ship. Costa Del Sol, a sunny vacation resort. I felt myself enjoying the heat as we walked through the streets, something I'd never liked as a human. As a lizard, the heat was more than agreeable for me.

Eventually, we came to a stop inside a small clinic. The doctor gave me a check-up, but all we learnt was that, indeed, nothing would heal my wounds except time itself. I was ordered to keep the bandages in place for a week. Once that was cleared, I was effectively booted from the clinic.

"Well... what do we do now?" I asked, scratching my snout.

"We spend the day here, so you can recover." Tifa answered, her tone leaving no room for argument from Cloud, who looked annoyed that his hunt for Sephiroth was on hold for the day.

"In that case, I'm going to the beach to bask in the sun." I grunted, turning towards the coast. "Cloud should go book us a nice 5-Star hotel for the night."

I ignored his wail of protest, just moving, slowly, towards the beach. Occasionally, I was forced to stop, leaning against a wall for support. That fight with Sephiroth... I was beaten without me being able to even try hitting him. He'd toyed with me, and his strength was still enough to take me out without breaking a proverbial sweat.

Coming up to the beach, I threw off my coat and t-shirt and just collapsed on the hot sand, instinct taking over. Lizards like to bask in high temperatures, mostly because they couldn't generate their own body heat, leaving them dependant on outside sources of heat. Unfortunately, this meant that where I couldn't feel the cold as a human, I was now extremely sensitive to it in my current state.

Purposely wiping all thoughts from my mind, I fell asleep.

--

I awoke an hour later, though I wasn't certain why. Scanning the beach, nothing had changed, a few more people, because it was now afternoon, but that was normal. To my right, several feet away, the three female members of AVALANCHE were clad in bikinis, sunbathing.

Women and their need to tan; I'll never understand it. My current situation was different from simply sunbathing for the sake of it. Still, I wasn't about to go talk to them about their strange, feminine habits. Even if thy saw fit to answer, they'd probably just end up confusing me further.

After looking to my left though, I caught sight of a familiar girl, and stood up, moving towards her. Jade flinched, lifting her sunglasses when I moved directly in the path of her sunlight, looking annoyed. The look only deepened when she realized who it was that had the gall to block her precious tanning light.

"Oh, it's you." She groaned, making gestures with her hand that clearly told me that she wanted me to move.

"Yes, it's me." I replied, sarcastically.

"If you've decided to bother me just because of your new injury, don't bother, I didn't tell you to go attack a clearly superior fighter. By your self, might I add?"

"A little warning about his strength would have been appreciated!" I snarled.

"And would you have believed me? Would you have listened to me if I told you not to attack him?" She snapped, rising to her feet, looking strangely menacing for someone who looked half my age.

"Besides which..." I hissed, ignoring her. "I didn't pick a fight with him, he picked one with me!"

"If you'd remained hidden, he wouldn't have known you were there!"

"Oh, so I'm supposed to play the heartless bastard who lets people suffer needlessly, when I can end such pain?"

"Remember one little thing Jethro, and remember it good: to you, these people aren't worth jack-all." Jade ground out. "You are the only 'real' person here, and your life takes priority. If something happens to you, I may not be able to save you in time. Phoenix downs, potions and the like aren't the cure all to all your problems, as I'm sure you figured out with that wound."

"Are you saying that if I...?" I began, but was cut off.

"What Jade means is that while there are rumours, she'd honestly rather not take the chance." A familiar voice cut in.

Both Jade and myself turned to the newcomer to the conversation. It was the girl that Jade had been laying next to. She sat up, glaring at the both of us.

"It is honestly really doubtful that a permanent death in this world will mean anything." The new girl continued. "You'll probably just be forced back to your own reality, maybe with your heart beating faster then usual, probably with lingering pain from whatever wound it was that killed you, but otherwise perfectly unharmed."

"The word 'probably' is what concerns me." I grunted, trying to remember where I'd heard her voice before. She looked familiar as well, like someone from a dream.

Her looking like she could be Jade's sister didn't help. Probably meant that she was another PS2.

"The fact is, no player has ever been confirmed as permanently dying in their game." The new girl explained. "We do take measures to avoid such a thing, such as only bringing players to a game they know really well, and making slight changes to the Player's body. In your case, no meddling was needed; you got everything you needed in regards to strength and stamina from fusing with your pet."

"But, like in your world, ours does have its gossip and rumours. Rumours of Players surviving such an occurrence are far more common then the other way around." Jade finished.

"Right." I nodded, slowly, letting all this register in my mind. "But there is always a chance that the rumours of Players dying is true."

"Naturally." Jade shrugged. "But think about it, everything good in life has its share of risks. This is no more different then you crossing the road, there are no guarantees that a speeding car won't hit you as you cross the road. But you do everything to avoid such an occurrence, and we do the same."

I hummed, digesting this piece of news.

"Ok, fine." I consented. "Just warn me of anything that seriously threatens my wellbeing."

Jade nodded.

"Ah, Jethro." Jade spoke up, gesturing towards her friend. "This is Maria, a friend of mine."

"Another PS2 incarnation?" I asked.

"Got it in one!" Maria grinned. "Nice to meet you while you're fully conscious."

That last statement made it click as to where I'd seen her before.

"You're the one that was making bets against me." I exclaimed.

Both PS2s had the decency to look slightly sheepish.

"Ah, you were awake when we were talking were you?" Maria asked.

"Barely." I muttered. "So I take it your owner is the hot chick in the trench coat?"

"Maggie, yes." Maria nodded. "Though you're the first person I've heard call her a 'hot chick in a trench coat'."

"Hey, teenage hormones, plus she **is** good looking, from what I remember." I explained.

"I'll have to pass on that she has a secret admirer then." The PS2 claimed. "Now talk to your own PS2, I want to enjoy my vacation away from the troubles of looking after a trouble-magnet, while it lasts."

"Hate to break it to you, 'Ria." Jade cut in. "But Jethro here is just as much a trouble magnet as Maggie is."

"Ah, but he isn't **my** responsibility, he's yours." Maria countered, lying down again. "And no dumping your responsibilities on me, else I won't let you enjoy the private baths in Balamb Garden."

Jade muttered something under her breath, shaking her head before turning to me.

"Well, I suppose it's easier to tell you face to face then over the phone." Jade declared, blue eyes narrowed.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this?" I asked.

"Because you know that you attract all sorts of trouble." The PS2 answered. "But be careful around the Shinra folks."

"I do that plenty already." I grunted, frowning.

"Yes, but now, you've pissed off the President."

"What? How?" I asked, confused.

"You did kinda throw his favourite pet off the edge of the Shinra Tower." She pointed out.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Wait, he's pissed because I killed a pet?

"How would you feel if somebody had killed Spike, back before this ever happened?" Jade asked, seeming to sense my thoughts.

"I'd fucking rip their throat out!" I snarled, picturing myself strangling some poor sod who murdered my beautiful pet lizard... oh... "Point taken."

"Yeah." Jade nodded. "He wants to chain you to the end of the Junon canon and fire; I believe he told the Turks in their briefing."

"Thanks for the mental image." I muttered.

"And Sephiroth now hates your scaly hide for calling him a mamma's boy."

"Not my fault he's overly sensitive." I defended myself.

"Tia now wants to rip your balls off for knocking her out and tossing her in a dumpster."

"That was... wait, how did she even know it was me?"

"No comment."

"Useless... Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you..."

"I made new characters to keep this whole experience from just being a simple 'remember everything you've ever known about Final Fantasy 7 and breeze through the adventure'. Gotta add new elements to make this exciting for you. Though some things changed by themselves when you were added to the mix, so be careful."

I nodded, understanding and respecting her reasons for adding a few new elements to the mix. She was right, it would be rather dull if I could remember all of the events and 'read the future'.

"That's all I believe needs to be said." Jade concluded, striking a pondering pose. "Yo, 'Ria, did I miss anything?"

"Only that Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie are watching us and wondering what Jethro would have to talk about with a pair of pre-teen girls." Maria sighed.

Both myself, and my PS2 looked to the side, and spotted the bikini clad women that Maria had referred to. I give a friendly wave to them, grinning when Yuffie waved back.

"What do I tell them?" I asked, turning to face Jade.

"I have an idea." She answered, turning to Maria. "How would you like some ice cream?"

The other PS2 looked at Jade, eyebrow raised, and then they must have spoken to each other telepathically or something, because both turned to look at me, an evil glint in their eyes.

"Oh, Uncle Spikey?" Jade spoke, in a loud enough voice that the three girls could hear.

"Buy us some ice cream!" Maria demanded, equally loudly.

Then, both moving as one, they latched onto my arms, and began dragging me to the ice cream stand, just past where the three women were sunbathing. As we came up to them, Tifa spoke up.

"And who might these be, Uncle Spikey?" She asked, sounding amused.

"My nieces." I groaned, realizing what the two PS2s had done. "Evil and Wicked."

"Hey!" Maria yelled out, indignant, and sounding exactly like her age. "We're Maria and Jade."

"And Uncle Spikey is getting us ice cream." Jade stated, still trying to pull me to the ice cream stand, the man running it looking amused at my plight.

Finally at the ice cream vendor, fully aware of the three women laughing at me behind my back. The two girls made their order, and the grinning ice cream vendor handed them the two most expensive ice creams they sold, before looking at me expectantly. Sighing, I put my hand in my back pocket, where I normally kept my wallet, and froze at the fistful of air that filled my pocket in its stead. It was gone.

And I knew where it was.

"Yuffie!" I yelled, turning to face her. "Gimme back my wallet!"

The ninja in question held the wallet in question up.

"What, this?" She asked, to which I nodded. "Hmm... Nah!" She stuck her tongue out.

Giving a roar of mock rage, I charged at her, making the bikini clad ninja squeal, jumping to her feet and racing away from me. She leapt into the water, swimming away, tongue still being stuck out at me.

Didn't she realize that water dragons weren't named such for nothing? If what Spike tells me is true, I could stay under water for a full half an hour and my swimming ability now outclasses hers by several leagues.

Stepping at the edge of the water, I pulled off my jeans after checking back at the other two women. Aeris had gotten up and paid the vendor for the ice cream I'd brought, so I was in the clear. Diving into the water, I quickly caught up with Yuffie and dunked her head under the water, grinning as she came back to the surface, sputtering and growling at me.

"If that's your way of asking for your wallet back, then you have another thing coming buster!" She cried.

"Ah, but I can get it back by force easily." I smirked. "This is just revenge."

And with those words, I dunked her under again. Sniggering at her futile attempts to pull me under with her. As she came back up the second time I grinned.

"Besides which." I continued. "I already know you left my wallet with Tifa and Aeris, so really, I'm free to do what I want."

Another squeal from the brat, only this time, before I had a chance to dunk her, she splashed me. Thus started the most epic of all battles as Yuffie and I waged splash war on each other, both of us laughing the whole time.

Eventually, I managed to dunk her again, only this time, it seemed that she had planned for it, since a second after she went under, I felt something run down my legs. Yuffie re-emerged several feet away, waving some fabric like a flag, laughing victoriously. I didn't even need to check to confirm what it was.

The ninja had just managed to yank off my boxers.

"Oi! Give those back!" I cried out, though really, it didn't wasn't a matter of modesty that asked I have them back.

Being a lizard had some advantages, and the most unexpected of which was that nobody could see anything unless I was using them. Really, it was more because I didn't want to be arrested for streaking that I wanted them back.

Most people wouldn't bother checking to see what they could see before screaming about the streaker that was emerging from the water.

I made to advance on Yuffie, intent on getting back the article of clothing, but as I approached, the ninja held them above her head, a smirk on her face.

"Come too close, I might just rip these." She taunted.

I stopped, glaring at her.

"Please can I have them back?" I asked, surrendering.

"Hmm... only if you... gimme all your Materia!"

"No dice."

I should have seen that one coming; she does seem to have a fixation on shiny things. And Materia has a shining quality about it.

"Fine then, how about... you buy me several rounds of beer at a time of my choosing, regardless of when it is I ask?"

That, actually sounds reasonable, though I shudder to imagine what her definition of 'several' rounds of beer is.

"Fine." I nodded, catching the underwear as they were tossed to me.

Slipping them on, I vowed vengeance under my breath before swimming back to shore, following after Yuffie, who started to complain that she was all wrinkled up. As I was behind Yuffie, I caught sight of the large tattoo that ran from her shoulders down to halfway down her back. The tattoo itself was of a familiar creature. Leviathan. Well, that made sense, she was Wutain, and they worshipped Leviathan didn't they?

At Aeris' claim that it was time to go to the hotel Cloud had booked us, I nodded and started grabbing my clothes. The tide had risen while I was swimming, so my Jeans were now completely soaked from where I'd left them. My coat and t-shirt were sandy, but otherwise fine. Hopefully there was a way to wash the clothes at the hotel Cloud had booked.

As I left the beach, I failed to notice Jade and Maria watching me, it having completely left my mind that they were even on the beech.

"Do you think it was right?" Jade asked Maria. "Not telling him the truth."

"He might have panicked." Maria pointed out.

"Yeah, but... Doesn't he have a right to know?"

"If he knew that dying here would mean dying for real, both in this world and his, it'd have been a constant thought at the back of his mind, and he'd be unable to think properly. He'd make his chances of dying that much more likely by trying to avoid it."

Jade sighed, watching me walk up the stairs that led to the town.

"I suppose."

"If he makes it through this, then he'll never have to know. If he dies, then at least he'd die doing something he enjoys."

"You sound calm about this matter." Jade growled.

"You think it doesn't worry ME?" Maria snapped. "Maggie almost died, several times. Each time, I was unable to help her; she had to pull through herself. I do worry about the idea that I might have sent her to her death, then again, you'd have to be a 'heartless bastard' to not care."

Jade sighed again, mumbling something under her breath.

"Why was this rule imposed on us **after **we sent the kids into this situation?" Maria asked the older, yet less secure PS2.

"Rumours." Jade muttered, wearily. "That's all I can say really. Rumours… and none of them are good."


	20. She'll be coming round the mountain

Chapter 19: She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain...

I woke up, the memory of dream still playing vividly in my mind. Such a good dream... Ok, why did I have to wake up now? Always when it gets to the good bits.

Wait... No. no, it was not a good dream. I do **not** see Yuffie like that, that's the hormones speaking. Damned teenage hormones. No, I do not think of Yuffie like that. She is an annoying brat who seems to find pleasure in tormenting me.

Sighing, I sat up, and cursed as I realized that my body was betraying me, something I didn't need right now. One early morning cold shower was in order. One long, cold shower. Damnit, this is all Yuffie's fault. Her and that bloody bikini she was wearing yesterday. Her and that skimpy, tight... No, begone! Begone from my mind! I do not need to add more fuel to the fire. It's already like an oil fire. It needs no more fuel, it needs fuel taken away!

_'Why'd you have to wake up? That was a good dream.'_

Oh God... Why me? Why am I the butt end of every joke the cosmos sees fit to play? I really don't want Spike to start getting bright ideas, because of one hormone induced dream.

_'You should ask Yuffie to have...'_

_No! Nononono! I Am NOT LSITENING! Lalalalala, I can't hear you!_

_'Spoil sport.'_

With silence in my mind again, I grabbed my clothes from where they'd been dumped unceremoniously on the floor, and carried them to the bathroom. Yes, my room was en suite. Have to remember to thank Cloud, when I see him.

_'I wonder what Yuffie wears... Thongs or...'_

_Shut up!_

For crying out loud, now he's put a mental image of Yuffie in my mind.

_'Why are you so obsessed with keeping Yuffie out of your mind? You aren't a closet homo are you?'_

If this is any indication of the rest of my day, then I am seriously going to regret ever getting out of that bed.

_I'm not a homo._

_'Sounds like someone is sexually insecure.'_

_I AM PERFECTLY SECURE WITH MY SEXUALITY!_

_'Then why are you being so defensive? Besides, what's wrong with Yuffie? She's your... our age, she ain't half bad looking...'_

_She's an irritating little brat._

_'Says you? I've seen how you act back home...'_

_I have Asperger's and you know it._

_'Still, what's wrong with thinking about Yuffie in that way? It's your mind.'_

_My mind with irritating backseat driver._

_'Seriously, just picture it: Yuffie, wearing a lacy black thong...'_

Again, thanks to the hitchhiker in my mind, I was forcefully delivered mental images. Cursing, I threw myself into the shower and turned it on cold, full blast. Probably not the best of ideas, but at least it did the job.

I've got to find out if there's a way to gag Spike.

_'I'm flattered and all, but I'm really not into that sort of thing.'_

I slammed my head against the wall.

"My lizard is a freaking pervert." I groaned, before moving to get dressed.

* * *

It turned out that the others had let me sleep in. When I finally left the hotel looking for everyone, it was well past 12PM. They're all probably down at the beach, waiting for me.

_'And hopefully Yuffie is wearing that bikini again.'_

_Shat that hole you call a mouth, or I'll shut it for you!_

_'What hole? I'm an incorporeal lizard in your head! I don't **have **a mouth! And I'm practicing my right of freedom of speech.'_

My lizard just used my line. That line about practicing the right to freedom of speech is my excuse to keep talking even when my siblings tell me to shut up.

How dare the miserable git use my line?

A palm to my temple shut him up. And earned me several odd... odder looks from the locals. Ah screw them. If they want to stare, let them, see if I care. Not like I'll ever see any of them again. How's that for logic?

At the beech, I did indeed find the rest of AVALANCHE, though much to Spike's disappointment; none of the girls were clad in bikinis. Nope, fully dressed in their usual outfits... Well, Yuffie was wearing a slightly different outfit, not massively different, but slightly different. It doesn't have that weird sleeve thing for one thing, seeing as she tore it to shreds to bandage my face the other day. Wonder what the point in that thing **was**, anyway. Had to have some purpose, didn't it? And no saying it was fashionable; it wasn't.

If you need help realizing what Yuffie was wearing, it's the outfit she wears in Kingdom Hearts. The first one.

As I neared, I noticed that the group was crowding around someone. Barret was looking pissed off as usual, nothing new there. But Cloud's lips were pressed together so tightly, all that was seen of them was a thin, white line.

Cloud is trying to reign in a temper. That can't be good.

My assumption was proven true when I noticed who they were crowding around.

Professor Hojo.

Wait... greasy little Hojo, getting a tan? It almost seems like a sign of the apocalypse. What next, he going to wash his hair? As I neared, I heard Cloud demand to know what the mad scientist was doing.

"It should be obvious, I'm getting a tan." Hojo drawled.

You know who Hojo reminds me of? Professor Snape. Long greasy hair, both professors, both very unethical in their methods.

At least they don't sound the same. Hojo has a more stereotypical scientist type of voice.

"Answer me!" Cloud barked.

"Hmm! I believe we're both after the same goal." Hojo responded, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

"You mean Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.

"Did you see him? I see…" Hojo laughed, leaning back onto his deck chair.

"What is it?" Cloud frowned, lips tightening further.

"Nothing. I just remembered a certain hypothesis… Haven't you ever had the feeling something is calling you? Or that you had to visit some place?"

I raised an eyebrow ridge at the incredibly vague question.

"Sure I do." I answered, to the scientist's surprise. "I get that all the time, it's known as needing to go take a piss. I feel the toilet calling me, and I know I have to go visit the little lizard's room. That answer your question?"

Hojo glared at me, ignoring the sniggers that most of AVALANCHE was fighting to suppress.

"Not what I meant, no." Hojo frowned. "You're that reptile that the Turks dragged into my lab, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Remind me to punch you in the face sometime for just locking me in some tube, naked. Left a terrible draft you see, and that ain't good for reasons I'm positive you already know."

"Ectothermy." Hojo nodded, glancing at Aeris. "…Say aren't you the 'Ancient'?"

"I'm Aeris." Aeris replied. "The least you can do is something, Professor Hojo… I know I'm an Ancient. My mother told me."

"Your mother? Oh, you mean Ifalna. How is she?"

"You didn't know!? She died."

Hojo looked up, sharply, eyes narrowed, looking at Aeris as if trying to tell whether or not the Cetra was lying.

"…I see." He finally grunted, bowing his head in thought.

"Professor Hojo… Is Jenova an Ancient? Is Sephiroth an Ancient? Do we all have the same blood?"

Hojo mumbled something under his breath. I didn't catch much of it, just the instructions to 'head west'.

"He's mumbling slowly... That must means he's hiding something!" Aeris sighed.

"Hey!" Tifa snapped. "Answer us!"

"It's no use." Cloud shook his head. "It's a no go."

"Head west." I repeated, mentally conjuring up a map of the continent from memory. "Do you think he meant the path that takes us through Coral?" I asked.

The rest of AVALANCHE looked at me.

"Why do you think that?" Barret asked, a slight tone to his voice.

"Going westwards, that's the only route that I can think of that takes us anywhere." I pointed out.

Cloud nodded.

"Makes sense." Cloud agreed. "I was looking at the map last night, trying to figure out which way Sephiroth would have gone. The route through Coral is the quickest way to the other side of the continent."

Barret made a face, before nodding.

"Who goes wit' who?" He asked.

Cloud bowed his head in thought. I leant over so that I could whisper in Red's ear.

"10 gil says Cloud takes Tifa and Aeris, leaving you, me and Barret with Yuffie."

"No deal." He whispered back. "He's just pretending to think about it."

We were proven correct.

"Tifa, Aeris, with me. Barret, Spike, Red, look after the brat."

"Hey!" Yuffie yelled out, indignant.

"Whatever." Barret grunted.

Sniggering, Cloud walked away, followed by the two girls, leaving me with my team. Smiling to myself, and ignoring the lizard within, I examined my team mates. They looked ready enough.

"Do we need any supplies?" I asked, checking my pack quickly.

I did my supply shopping yesterday, so I'm fine. Everyone else shook their heads once they'd checked their own supplies.

"Then I say we get this show on the road." I declared, turning about face, and marching towards the town entrance or, as the case is for me and my companions, the town exit.

"And why does he take charge?" I heard Yuffie ask.

"Because out of all of us, he is the most socially agreeable." Red answered. "Barret has a language problem."

Barret pulled a face and grunted a short 'fuck you', as if to prove Red's point.

"I'm not exactly what people expect, and they never expect me to be able to talk, so I'm not exactly a choice. You have a slight problem with keeping your hands to yourself... and you let go of that fire Materia right now, or you lose that hand... which leaves Spike, who most people are convinced is just a weirdo wearing a lizard costume."

"Oh, yeah, thanks." I shot back. "Way to boost the confidence levels. And Yuffie, give me that enemy skill Materia back, or Barret tests his Bio and Esuna Materia on you."

Yuffie gave me an odd look, before giving Barret a sideward glance. The big, black dude noticed and smirked.

"I'd do it." He nodded.

Yuffie gave an odd sound at the back of her throat and handed me the stolen Materia orb.

"Thank ye kindly." I smirked. "Keep your hands to yourself. I just lead the way and talk to people that need talking to, I don't order or control Barret or Red. If you upset them, they do what they want in retaliation."

Yuffie mumbled something under her breath. I didn't hear what it was, but it probably wasn't the sort of language the princess of Wutai should be speaking.

We exited the resort town, once again heading out into the big wide world. A world that needs heroes. And apparently a lizard that needs to monologue cheesy lines.

"It's been a while since I've been around these parts." I spoke up, as a means to start a conversation. "Just passed through to get to the so-called capital of the world."

"You've been to Midgar?" Yuffie asked, turning to look at me.

"We all have." I answered. "You're the only one who hasn't."

The ninja gave me a look before making a sound that reminded me of whining.

"No fair." She pouted. "I was actually going to go to Midgar when I met you guys. See if I could liberate some Materia from the Shinra bigwigs."

I like how she avoided saying 'steal', when speaking about herself. Very clever. Still doesn't change the fact that she steals.

"It was your choice to come with us." I reminded her. "I distinctly remember trying to veto that idea while it was still young. Now you've followed us across the big puddle, it's a little late to change your mind."

"I wasn't planning on changing my mind!" Yuffie defended herself.

I shrugged.

"Been a while for me as well." Barret suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Hasn't been long enough." He murmured.

"Bad blood?" Red queried.

Barret nodded absently.

"Too much." He answered, absent mindedly.

"You from around here then?" I spoke up.

The Mr T wannabe seemed to snap out of his thoughts, and glared at me.

"None o' yer business." He snapped.

Flinching, I took a few steps away from him. Cue uncomfortable silence. **Very** uncomfortable silence. A thought occurred to me then, as I thought back to my time in Midgar.

"Yuffie, you're Wutain, aren't you?"

Yuffie shot me a look that just screamed 'well duh' at me.

"What can you tell me about the Laixiu?" I asked, recalling what the weapon shop keeper back in Midgar had spoken of, and the engraving on the side of my blade.

Yuffie shot me a look of confusion, before nodding to herself.

"There are lots of legends about the Laixiu." She told me. "Most contradict each other somehow. The one that I personally believed as a child was that the Laixiu are like the Cetra are to the humans... only for a race called the Bangaa."

Huh. Bangaa huh? If memory serves, they were bipedal lizards, like myself, only they found being called 'lizard' to be a racial insult. There were physical differences between myself and Bangaa though, such as the Bangaa having external ears, and they were all short sighted.

"Haven't heard of the Bangaa before." Red mused. "What are they?"

"Think of me, then add chronic short sightedness and external ears, much shorter tails, and you have a basic image of one." I joked.

"You forgot the lack of magical ability, lisp and strong enough physically that Bangaa dragoons can leap twice as high as human dragoons." Yuffie pointed out.

Yea... I had forgotten about that.

"I hear that they live on the other side of the world. They stick to the southern continents." Yuffie commented.

"What, the Laixiu?"

"No, the Bangaa." Yuffie shook her head.

"There are still some around?" I queried.

"As I said: southern continents. I can't recall what they're called. Eva-something or other."

"It doesn't matter anyway." I shrugged. "Unless the Shinra is running amok down there?"

"They ain't." Barret interjected. "They might one day, but fo' now, dey stick to da northern continents."

"I'd like to see the southern continents some day." Red mused.

"You and me both." I grinned. "Picture me with a group of Bangaa. I'd fit right in."

A snigger from the four legged creature had me shooting a mock insulted glare.

"You don't need to go anywhere to fit in." I pointed out. "Just mingle with cats and dogs."

"You only need to mingle with household lizards." He shot back.

"I'm not the one who's on fire 24/7."

"You're the one who was showing all his assets back in Shinra Tower."

"He what?" Yuffie asked, sounding surprised.

"I was captured by the Turks and dragged to the resident mad scientist. I was stripped and stuffed in a tube full of something or other. I don't know… I was out cold at the time."

Well, no, according to Spike, I was dead at the time.

"Trust me to pick a group of weirdo's as travelling companions."

"Who are you calling weird?" Red and I both asked at the same time.

Yuffie gave a squeak and back pedalled away from us.

"I think we freaked her out." I commented.

"I think so as well." Red nodded.

"A job well done then." I grinned.

* * *

The hike to the Corel Mountains was, besides the odd monster attack, relatively quiet. After two days of travelling, we came to the path that would lead us through the mountains on at the sunset of third day. The closer we had gotten, the more agitated that Barret would get.

He really didn't want to go through the pass, but he seemed to resign himself on the third day.

We began to traverse the path, eyes open for an appropriate place to set up camp. About halfway up the path, we came upon a traveller coming from the opposite direction. He was a rugged looking man, with greying hair. He noticed us and frowned slightly.

"I just passed a guy in a black cloak back there. I just tried to tell him that it's dangerous up ahead, and he ignored me!" He claimed, sounding annoyed. "It's dangerous enough at day, but its just coming on to night, it's practically suicide."

"Did this man have silver hair?" I asked.

"He did." The man nodded.

"Thanks." I smiled. "You said its dangerous up ahead. Does that mean that it's safe to set up camp here?"

"Yeah. The monsters prefer being near that ruined reactor."

"Reactor?"

"Old Shinra Mako Reactor. It looks like its been in ruins for years now, but the monsters still seem to cling to the place. Must be some Mako residue left over."

"Thanks for the warning."

The man nodded and carried on down the path. I turned to Barret, who was already pulling our tents out from his bag. Yeah, this spot sounded like the best place to set up camp, but that wasn't why I was turning to talk to him.

"What is it you aren't telling us?" I asked.

He paused in his actions.

"What makes yo think I know anything?" He asked.

"The last few days, you've been acting like you took a bath in itching powder, and it only got worse the closer we got. And today, you act resigned. You know something."

"What makes it your business!?" He snapped, turning to face me, sharply.

"You might have been the leader of AVALANCHE back in Midgar, making you higher up on the pecking order, and were it just me, I wouldn't ask. But Red is my friend, and if he, or the brat, gets hurt because you knew something that the rest of us didn't, I'll make sure they don't find your body."

Barret's face went red and he stormed right up to me, anger extremely evident.

"You threatening me?"

I shoved Barret back, surprising him with my strength, getting him out of my face, and glared at the large man.

"If that is how you see it."

Shaking his gun-arm, Barret growled.

"I don't know nothing."

"Does it have to do with the reactor?"

Barret hesitated, eyes going cloudy, as he went deep in thought, before sighing, turning back to unpacking the tents.

"Yes. But nothing that any of ya will get hurt from... only me..."

I frowned, but only partially in confusion from what he'd just said. It was mostly in confusion that I honestly couldn't remember what was so significant about this place to Barret. I remember that Coral was his hometown, but what _happened? _It's like I have a blank spot in my mind. Frowning even deeper, I tried to recap everything I knew about Final Fantasy 7. This wasn't the only blank spot in my memory. I remember Nibelheim, what happens there, if vaguely, can't remember how we meet Cid though... or what happens directly after Aeris' death. How I can't even remember the exact details **of** her death.

_I'm losing my memory?_

_'It could be brain damage from Cel.' _Spike pointed out, sounding strangely serious. _'Are there any other details you're forgetting?'_

I thought back to my life before any of this had happened. I remember my friends (few as they may be) names, their faces, what my school uniform looked like, what the road my home was on looked like... I can't remember my brother's face. I recall his name, but not his face. It's the opposite for the elder of my two sisters. Can't remember anything about my mother, other then that I have one.

Shit...

What is worrying me though is that I'm getting faint memories of events that I know never happened.

Double shit...

_'Next time we see Jade, ask her about it. Maybe she can repair the damage.' Spike suggested, reasonably. 'I'd assume so, otherwise when we go home, you'll have a scar that you didn't have before.'_

I sighed, seeing the logic in his statement. It would be weird if she returned me home with a scar on my face that I didn't have before. Especially one as visible as the one Sephiroth gave me.

Noticing that Barret had already set up the beds and retreated into his own for the night, I followed his lead and entered the one that I shared with Red.

"What was that argument about?" The four legged wonder asked.

"Just trying to figure out what he knows, not very tactfully." I answered.

"Tact was never a strong point with you." Red mock-sighed.

"Why do we always have to share the tent?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I'd assume it's because Barret is too big to share a tent with anyone, and members of the female gender are more touchy about their privacy." Red shook his head. "And really, it's pointless carrying around an extra tent just for myself."

"I suppose." I shrugged.

"Why? Getting bored of me?" Red asked, sounding amused.

"Just idle curiosity." I murmured.

"Ok, what's wrong?" Red questioned.

"What makes you thing there's something wrong?"

"You're brooding." The canine pointed out. "The last time I recall you brooding was when Shepard had to go to Gongaga and you weren't allowed to go with him."

A memory flashed across my mind, one of the exact same scene that had just been described to me, and, almost instinctively, I began laughing.

"That was so long ago, I'm surprised you still remember." I laughed.

"Memories of my time back in Cosmo Canyon helped to keep me sane during the years I was a specimen of Hojo's. Naturally, you were in a majority of those memories."

The humour left me, as Red mentioned his time as Hojo's captive.

"I'm sorry."

Red shook his head.

"You have nothing to apologise for. Unless I'm mistaken, you weren't the one that shot me with a tranquilliser gun."

Another memory flash. The news that the last guardian of Cosmo Canyon was officially declared missing.

"The canyon mourned you for the better part of a year." I mentioned. "They believed that were you still alive, you'd have returned. I think they believed that you'd run into something bigger than what usually roams the Cosmo Canyon area. The thought that you'd been caught by Shinra never crossed their minds."

Red sighed softly.

"I'm fast, but I can't outrun a jeep." He murmured. "I think they had me under observation for some time, they knew exactly where I'd be."

"Best not mention Shinra's involvement in your disappearance. Most of the Canyon held Adrian in low regards, being an Ex-SOLDIER. They'd probably blame him."

Red nodded.

"A sad trait of all humans, distrusting a man due to his past."

"Sadly."

I rolled over; pulling out a novel I'd grabbed back at Costa Del Sol, and flicked to the page that I'd gotten up to. The book in question was the novel that Loveless was an adaptation of. Loveless being a hugely popular production with theatre and movie adaptations.

It was actually a pretty good read. Had its humour, had its serious, and despite the name, it wasn't just some mushy romance. The romance was more of a side story.

Immersed in my novel, I failed to realize that I'd been getting memory flashes of a life I had never lived.

* * *

**The bipedal lizard grabbed the guardrails that prevented the crew from accidentally falling overboard, groaning. Seasickness, who would have guessed it?**

**Another passenger moved to stand beside the youth, believing, like a majority of people do, that he was wearing a lizard costume. Had he known otherwise, he'd have been the type of person to freak out. But as it was, he was feeling sympathetic for the lad. It was obviously his first time travelling across the sea, and thus had been taken by surprise when the seasickness had hit.**

"**We'll be reaching Junon soon." The man commented.**

"**Joy to the world." The lizard spat. "It can't come soon enough."**

**The man pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose and smiled in good humour.**

"**So why does a young man like you want to go to the western continent?" He asked. "The entire place is completely under Shinra's thumb."**

"**Just needed a change." The lizard replied. "After my best friend went missing, I couldn't stand the place. Too many memories."**

**The man nodded, sighing.**

"**I know how that feels. My wife was a medic during the war, for the losing side. After she died, I couldn't bear to remain in Wutai, where everything reminded me of her."**

"**I'm sorry for your loss."**

"**Nah, it's been years. I'd be in a very sorry state if I couldn't move on with my life."**

"**So why are you going to Shinra territory? I'd have thought you'd hate them for the death of your wife."**

"**Picking up some chocobos for the Gold Saucer." The man told the lizard. "I hear one of them is a specially commissioned black chocobo."**

"**Must have cost a fortune." The lizard commented.**

"**Yeah. Never seen one before, myself, and working at the Gold Saucer, you see all sorts."**

"**I can imagine."**

**"So, where was it you were actually going to?"**

"**Midgar. I've heard rumours I wanted to look into."**

"**Good luck with that then.**

"**And to you and your chocobos."**

**The man moved away, leaving the lizard to return to his seasickness. Interesting rumours indeed. He hoped these rumours weren't just that though. This AVALANCHE group sounded good.**

* * *

I woke up, shaking my head to clear the cobwebs, all recollection of my dream fading away. A glance around the tent revealed that Red was still sleeping. That meant that it wasn't even dawn yet, since Red always woke up first thing. A glance on my watch told me that I was right. Half an hour till dawn.

Groaning, knowing that I wouldn't be getting any more sleep, I grabbed my t-shirt and coat, shrugging them on and exited the tent. Sighing, remembering who's turn it was to hunt for breakfast, I moved down the path, back to the grassy plains. I knew for certain that there were edible monsters out there, and wasn't willing to test whether the monsters at the reactor ruin were also edible. Plus we needed to restock our water supply, and we'd passed a spring shortly before arriving at the path that led through the pass.

This morning, I got a rare catch. Rather than one of the numerous edible monsters that roam the world, I managed to catch some regular wildlife. A rabbit to be exact. Pulling the preservative material out of my bag, I wrapped it around the carcass, so that it wouldn't go rotten. According to Tifa, when I'd asked her about the stuff, it kept a carcass from rotting for up to a month, making it perfect for us, considering that we spent most of our time in between each town.

Not that a rabbit would last a month, but seeing as Coral was just over the mountain pass, we should be able to restock there. But still, at least rabbit won't taste like urine soaked leather... not that I've ever actually eaten urine soaked leather.

Back at camp, I began to set about preparing breakfast. Not a pleasant talk, seeing as I have to skin and gut the drat thing before I can cook it. Yuffie impressed me with the fact that she can do such almost without thinking about it. I suppose it would be something she'd know, being a ninja that generally loiters around forests. She generally does the skinning and gutting for Barret and Red, since Red can't for obvious reasons, and Barret is lacking a second hand.

In my case, however, I have no reason why I shouldn't be able to do it myself, so the most she did was show me how.

At least I know I can survive for extended periods of time in the wild now.

And I was right about the rabbit not tasting like urine soaked leather. It tasted quite nice actually. Too bad it didn't last beyond the one breakfast.

Once we'd eaten, we packed up our camp and began our trip over the mountains. However, that was delayed the moment we got the the reactor...

I stared at the tall structure in the middle of the... I would say crater, but everything is too precise for that to be the case. It looked more like an excavation zone. And smack dab in the middle of this place, was a Mako reactor. Seems Shinra got here, once upon a time. Abandoned now, though. The place was an obvious wreck.

"What happened here?" Yuffie asked, craning her neck back to get a look at the top of the building.

"Shinra happened!" Barret growled.

"That was kind of obvious." I commented. "Unless Shinra secretly has a rival company stealing their designs for Mako reactors."

Barret shuddered at that thought.

"Damn well better not be!"

Shaking my head, I looked at the reactor again.

"It looks like it was destroyed from the inside out." I commented. "The holes in the wall are bent outwards, which would mean that somebody set up a bomb on the inside. Sound familiar?"

"Like us at Midgar." Barret frowned. "But not as well as us! The damned thing is still standin'."

"Unfortunately."

"Let us keep moving." Red interrupted us.

I nodded, gesturing towards a train track.

"Trains go to civilisation." I reasoned. "So we follow the tracks, we head to whatever town the station is at."

And thus we moved, hopping over cracks in the ground until we were walking on the tracks, much to Yuffie's displeasure.

"What if a train comes along?" She asked, nervously.

"Relax." Barret sighed. "These tracks haven't been used for four years."

"Something to do with the damaged reactor?" Red asked, curiously.

"Somethin' like that." Barret grunted.

Eventually the tracks went across a giant bridge that went from one mountain side to another. The wood used was not looking overly healthy. Scratch that, some of the blocks of wood looked downright rotten.

This was proven when I had only taken two steps and the ground under me gave way.

I may have fallen to my death, had Barret not grabbed the end of my tail with his good hand, stopping me.

"Shit!" I yelled out in pain.

While my tail isn't overly sensitive, having it grabbed as I start falling makes it feel as if its about to be ripped off, and unlike some breads of lizard, water dragons do **not** regrow their tails.

Once pulled back onto not quite solid ground, but solid enough for the moment, I immediately cast cure on the part of my tail that connects with the small of my back, just to ensure that it didn't fall off any time soon. Yuffie decided that it would be intelligent to look through the gap in the tracks to see just how far I would have fallen. Two seconds later, she pulled her gaze away, looking green.

"That was not fun." I growled. "Let us not repeat the experience."

"Agreed." Red nodded.

"Right, keep an eye on where you tread, and test the ground before each step. We might not be so lucky next time."

And thus we advanced, very, very, oh god, so **very** slowly across the tracks. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, had it not been for the avian variety of monsters that chose about that time to come out and play. So there we were, trying to advance across the bridge safely, and we have birds attacking us, making that so much more difficult, that Yuffie almost went over the side of the bridge.

We advanced like that until we made a wrong turn and ended up stuck at a raised drawbridge, tired, injured, and running out of potions. Of course, a rather large monster was waiting for us at the drawbridge in question.

Yeah, our lives suck like that.

Cursing, I readied my gunblade, which I hadn't bothered to sheath the entire time we'd been on the bridge, due to the near constant attacks. The monster roared, and charged at Barret, knocking him on his back.

I moved forwards, swinging my weapon, catching it on its leg. The turtle like monster (not an adamantoise) roared again, and spun around, head butting me on the chest, releasing the air from my lungs. Staggering back, the monster turned to Yuffie and a yellow beam shot from its eyes and caught Yuffie. Before my eyes, the ninja turned to stone, shocked expression still evident on her face.

So we are dealing with a turtle that can petrify people? Excuse me while I go weep with joy... Barret fumbled around with his pack, pulling out a vial of white liquid. Were it not for the glow it was emitting, I'd have thought that he'd pulled out a vial of milk of all things. The Mr T wannabe tossed the vial at the statue, and it shattered upon contact. For several seconds, nothing happened, but then the stone started to crumble, leaving Yuffie gasping.

"I hate being turned to stone." She declared.

"Then try not to get petrified next time." Red growled, casting Thunder on the turtle creature.

Again, it roared, only this time in pain. I took that moment to unleash the pent up energy that had gathered in the form of a limit break. Standing back, I swung my blade, slicing through the air several times, and watched as the air itself sliced against the monster, even cutting through the shell.

I shall dub this new limit break 'Air Cutter'.

And no criticising my originality. It's a spur of the moment thing.

The monster, seeming to recognise me as the biggest threat, charged at me the same why it had done Barret. It didn't make it, since Barret had a Big Shot waiting, and where my Air Cutter had weakened the monster, the Big Shot finished it off.

Monster dealt with, we used the last of our supplied to heal up.

Now this left us with the problem of a raised drawbridge blocking our path.

"We have two options." Red told us, as we sat down, trying to get our breaths back.

"And they are?" Yuffie questioned.

"Go back and take the other turn, which leads to the control box on the ridge up there." Red gestured to the control box in question. "Where we will be forced to fight numerous monsters, with our dwindling supplies."

"An' the other option?" Barret panted, firing his gun arm at a pterodactyl wannabe.

"We stay here, in a reasonably easy to defend spot, and wait until Cloud's group gets here, so that they can go up and lower the bridge."

"And if Cloud's group went a different route?" Yuffie asked.

"They won't." Barret said. "This is the only way across, withou' addin' another three days to the trip."

"But does Cloud know that?" Yuffie pressed the issue.

"Despite his hair colour, Cloud ain't stupid." I snapped. "He'd follow the tracks for the same reason we did. Tracks have to lead somewhere. And that somewhere is most likely in a town."

"I hope you're right." Yuffie moaned.

"Why would the bridge the raised?" Red queried.

"Keep ou' land monsters." Barret said. "The bridge can be raised or lowered either side. That way, only humans can cross."

"Makes sense." I commented.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here." Tifa's voice came from behind me.

I turned and found Cloud, Aeris and Tifa approaching.

"Yo." I greeted. "I'm guessing you had an easier time crossing the bridge than we did."

"What makes you say that?" Cloud asked.

"The fact that you're not as exhausted as us. Monsters probably kept coming for us."

"Possibly." Cloud nodded. "What's the hold up?"

"The drawbridge is raised, and we can't get to the controls because we've used up all our medical supplies. For us, it's suicide to even try."

"So you want us to go and lower it for you, while you take your beauty naps?" Cloud smirked.

I put my hand on Cloud's shoulder and grinned.

"Knew I could count on ya. No go, go, lower the bridge, or all will be doomed."

"Smartass." Cloud shook his head. "We'll be back in a bit."

Sniggering, I watched as Cloud moved back the way he came, cursing as a bird swooped in a started pecking him.

"What did I tell ya, Yuffie?" I asked, rhetorically. "You can always count on Cloud to be dependable."

"I'll make a note of that." The brat replied. "Cloud is a tool."

Barret barked out a laugh at the description.

"Sound 'bout right." He agreed.

After five minutes of waiting, the drawbridge was lowered. Glancing up at the control booth, I spotted Cloud instantly. I raised my hand to acknowledge him, and then lead the three AVALANCHE members I was with across the bridge. Once across, I spotted a worm pathway, leading in the same general direction as the tracks. At the end of said path, was a rope bridge.

Beyond that, was smoke. Smoke from a controlled fire. Signs of civilisation.

"That way." I pointed.

Halfway across the bridge, we were ambushed by several bombs, which almost finished us off with their self destructing habits. I ended up using the last of my magical energies to keep us both alive and able to stagger across into the safe zone.

Said safe zone was a disaster area. Buildings were badly damaged, and the population were mostly just wearing rags.

To put it bluntly: it looked like it had been on the losing side of a war.

One of the citizens noticed us and shot up, alert.

"You, you're…" He gasped in surprise, before raising his voice. "Hey! He's back!"

Barret turned to look at me, and spoke in a soft voice, a direct contrast from his usual booming voice.

"Wait here…"

I nodded dumbly. Barret moved towards the crowd that formed, standing in front of the one that had noticed us. As they stared at each other Cloud caught up to us, and watched the scene in surprise.

"What the?" He wondered.

Completely out of the blue, the citizen stopped staring and delivered a vicious right hook that connected with Barret's face. Even though Barret didn't seem to react, his expression told me that it hurt him, just not physically.

"Well, lookey here! Never thought I'd ever see your face again." The man sneered. "Those people over there, they with you? Well, I feel sorry for 'em! Hangin' around a walkin' death sentence like Barret."

"You got a lot of balls comin' back here!" Another man spat. "Look at this place! It's all your fault North Corel turned into a garbage heap!"

"Why doncha say something!? Or did ya forget what you done here already?" The first man snarled.

"...I'm sorry." Barret spoke up, weakly.

"Bastard! You ain't even worth the effort."

"Don't waste time talkin' to that Techno-freak!"

The crowd dispersed, though most had something to say to Barret, usually an insult or two. I flinched at some of the stronger words to come out of their mouths. Once the crowd was gone, he moved up to where we were waiting, head bowed.

"You heard 'em… It's my fault this town was…destroyed…" He mumbled, before turning and running off to the side, and out of sight.

That, was a lot of guilt in his voice. No wonder he wasn't eager to come back here.

Sighing, I turned and followed the large black man, and ended up at a ropeway station, where Barret was brooding.

"Barret, what happened?" Aeris cried out.

"Sorry." Barret apologized.

"What happened?" Cloud asked.

"My hometown used to be around here." Was the answer given.

"What do you mean 'used to'" Red responded.

"It ain't here no more. Heard it got buried…in just 4 years."

"But how could those people say those terrible things?" Aeris demanded to know.

Barret continued as if he hadn't heard her.

"An' it's my fault. ALL my fault."

**Barret stood up straight as the village's headman looked up from where he's been sat, head bowed. A number of the village's key figures were in the room with them, along with a blond woman in a red dress, appropriate attire, considering her name.**

"**What are we going to do? The only one against this is Dyne..." The headman asked.**

**The man called Dyne turned around sharply from the window he'd been looking out of, shaking his fist.**

"**I am definitely against it, no matter what." He declared. "There's nothing to talk about if you're thinking of throwing away our coal! Our coal's been protected for generations. Our fathers, and theirs before them, risked their lives for it. We have no right to throw it all away so easily!"**

"**But listen, Dyne. No one uses coal nowadays. It's the sign of the times." Barret argued.**

**Scarlet smirked, nodding in agreement.**

"**Right, everything is Mako, now. It'll be all right, Dyne. Shinra, Inc. will guarantee your livelihood once the Mako Reactor is completed." She explained, managing to not sound as if she was reciting a practiced line.**

**Barret sighed, turning to look Dyne in the eye.**

"**Listen, Dyne. I don't want my wife, Myrna, to suffer anymore." He told his friend.**

"**I know how you feel! I feel the same way too, damn it!" Dyne cried. "But even so, I won't give away our coal mines!"**

"**Dyne…" The village headman sighed. "You've got to understand."**

"Then, the village was burned by Shinra troops... Lot's of people were killed that night..."

"Shinra troops?" Cloud exclaimed in surprise. "What for?"

"There was an explosion at a reactor." Barret sighed. "Shinra blamed the accident on the people. Said it was done by a rebel faction."

"And considering the damage at the reactor, it does look the part." I remembered.

"That's so terrible!" Tifa gasped.

"Well, I guess that's true. But more than Shinra, I couldn't forgive myself. Never should've gone along with the building of the reactor…"

"Don't blame yourself." Tifa tried to reassure the older man. "We were all fooled by the promises Shinra made back then."

"That's why…that's why I get so pissed off!" Barret yelled out. "Not only did they take advantage of me…… But I lost my wife, Myrna, too…"

The man in the ticket booth, who seemed to be making a point of not listening to our conversation, looked up at that moment.

"Hey everyone! If you want to go to the 'Gold Saucer', hurry and get on!" He called out.

"Dyne was my best friend. We was close ever since we was kids…" Barret sighed, entering the tram.

"I never knew. Barret never said a thing…" Tifa sighed.

"We all have our demons we keep to our self." I pointed out.

There was a moment of silence, before it was broken by Yuffie.

"I'm not sympathizing with Barret! He never should have trusted Shinra Inc.…" She declared.

My palm connected to the back of her head, making her flinch.

"Owie..." She groaned, rubbing her head glaring at me.

"…We better go on!" Tifa reminded us. "Don't want to miss the ride."

Nodding in agreement, I entered the tram and sat down, opposite Barret.

"Sorry." I apologized.

At his puzzled look I grunted.

"For last night."

Widening his eyes in realization, Barret nodded, accepting my apology. Everyone else entered the tram and took their seats. Once everyone was in, the tram began to move, gliding along the rope, giving us all an impressive view of the view. According to the timetable attached to the wall and noted that it was a half hours trip we were in for.

"Just out of curiosity, what happens if the rope snaps?" I asked out of the blue.

The shriek I got from Yuffie for asking was worth it.

And the answer to something that had bugged me since I first saw the distance that the tram actually had to go?

It wasn't actually rope, but a special type of alloy, with a fibre coating. It wouldn't be breaking unless someone did it intentionally, and seeing as the only two places that someone could reach the rope was in plain sight of a lot of people, it wasn't happening any time soon.

That's one worry of my chest.

Gold Saucer, I have to say I'm actually looking forward to visiting the place.


	21. The Golden Saucer

Chapter 20: Gold Saucer

Gold Saucer was big. Scratch that, Gold Saucer was not big, it was huge.

The moment we hit the halfway mark in our tram ride, we could see the Gold Saucer in the distance. It was a massive structure, all dedicated to fun, fun, and more fun. Chocobo racing, arcades, battle arena, this place had it all,

In short, I wanted to be there.

It was evening by the time we arrived, and fireworks were going off left right and center. Balloons littered the place, and lots of people were walking around in chocobo and Moogle outfits. Upon exiting the tram, Barret seemed to go all moody. Probably because this place's atmosphere was a direct contradiction of how he was feeling in light of seeing the state of North Coral.

Don't blame him.

But I wasn't going to let his attitude get in the way of me enjoying myself while I'm here.

So, with this mentality firmly in mind, I walked up to the ticket vendor and bought myself (using every gil to my name right now) a golden ticket. Hah, now I can come and go as I so desire. And as an added bonus, it seems I get to allow two persons of my choosing to accompany me. Well, seeing as there are only two other who are my age, or close enough, that choice is easy.

So long as long of them doesn't rob me of my golden ticket.

And if anyone makes a Willy Wonka joke about the golden ticket... just don't.

Either way, Red and Yuffie get to accompany me, free of charge. Hey, us teenagers have to stick together, it's a hard world out there for us non-adults. Though in human years Red is about 46 now if I recall correctly. But in his years, he's 16. That makes him a teen, like me. As I entered the Gold Saucer proper, I looked back to see Cloud, looking very annoyed, buying everyone else tickets.

He should just get himself a golden ticket and let the others worry about what they want. Cheaper that way.

You know what the nifty thing about Gold Saucer is? I can regain my lost funds by betting on the chocobo races. Win a few high end items, sell them for gil, or maybe GP for the battle square, and hey presto, a good amount of cash coming to my pockets. Yes, I like having money. And I hate spending it on small things when there are better versions to be had, as was the case with the ticket. Why settle for buying the lame-ass standard ticket, when I can get the deluxe golden ticket that allows me free access whenever I so desire?

In other words, I like money, but can have a difficult time holding onto said money.

Thankfully, even though I said I used every gil to my name, I meant every gil that wasn't set aside for necessities. Because, I am going to need to get some more rations for the next time we're travelling the countryside. It's not always a certainty that we'll always be able to catch something edible, though dear god that rabbit was a welcome change from the taste of urine soaked leather. That brings me onto point number two, namely, that nearly all the monsters taste like urine soaked leather. Yuffie admitted that she'd spent the majority of the last year of her life living of edible monsters, and in that entire year, nearly every monster tasted exactly the same.

So that rabbit was actually the best thing she'd eaten in a year. That's actually kind of sad.

So rations and other supplies are a must. I don't want to end up getting to the point where the taste of urine soaked leather is normal.

The main lobby area of the Gold Saucer was different from what was shown in the game. Where the game just showed a small room with the portals to the various sections of the place, here, that one room was actually a small corner, of a very big lobby. Picture a busy shopping mall, then you have the lobby section of Gold Saucer. There are the various portals to the different sections, and more than just one of each portal, the place was so busy, that there would likely be a massive pile-up if there were. Plus actual stairs, no doubt, in case of a fire or the like.

And also like a mall, there were various shops all over the place.

What I didn't like, was the blindingly bright colours that the decorator had chosen. Seriously, blue is a fine colour, when **not** clashing bright scarlet.

The chocobo and Moogle pictures on the floor were a nice effect though.

I moved over to the corner that was represented in the game, noticing that Barret was storming over there. The rest of AVALANCHE joined us, Aeris looking around giddy with excitement.

"Wow! Let's have fun!" She declared. "I know this isn't the right time to do this. Hey, Barret, cheer up!"

"……I ain't in no cheery mood. So jes' leave me alone." Barret snapped.

"Really?" The Cetra sighed. "That's too bad. Let's go!"

Tifa leant in close to Aeris' ear and the pair began whispering to each other. Eventually Aeris faced Barret with a smile.

"We're gonna play…"

"So PLAY! …messin' round fuckit!" The large man snapped. "Don't forget we're after Sephiroth!"

"Like we could forget." I commented, dryly.

And with those parting words, the black man stormed to a portal and leapt down it.

"…I think he's mad." Aeris sighed.

"He'll be fine." Tifa reassured her. "He seems to be doing a little better now."

Cloud paced a bit, thinking before stopping in front of Tifa.

"We'd better be careful, Sephiroth might be around." Tifa said.

"Let's go together." Cloud nodded in response.

Once Cloud had leapt down another portal, along with Tifa, Aeris went her own way, leaving Red, myself and Yuffie alone.

"Well, I say we stick together, and go to the chocobo races." I grinned. "See if we can't make us some cash."

"Don't suppose there's any way to cheat on the races is there?" Yuffie smirked.

"'Fraid not." I mock sighed. "Shame, easy money is so hard to come by these days."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" The brat asked.

"Need to restock first." I groaned "Or have you forgotten our lack of supplies?"

The ninja flinched, remembering the constant need for our potions.

"Restock it is." She sighed. "Worst part of the job."

"I thought that was skinning and gutting our food?" I groaned.

"That's a close second." She countered. "But buying supplies is a pain. It costs money, and there's no guarantee that you'll be able to replace the spent money before you next need to buy supplies."

"Good point." I sighed. "My budget is going to be tight until I can replace every last gil."

Red laughed softly at me.

"Next time, don't spend so much, when you have so little to begin with."

"Yeah, yeah." I shook my head.

Leading the way, I approached a reasonable looking store. Plenty of food for rations, and potions and high potions en mass. An adventurer's heaven. Assuming said adventurer had the funding.

Thankfully, Yuffie hadn't spent a cent to get into Gold Saucer, leaving her with money. And since I bought her way in, it was time for her to return the favour. She did so, grumbling.

"Ey. You look like you could use more storage space." The vendor spoke up, as we were paying for the supplies. "Really, that amount of potions won't last you long."

"Excuse us mere mortals for not having the strength to carry hiking bags stuffed to the brims with potions and still be able to fight monsters." I shot at him.

The vendor held his hands up in a gesture of peace.

"Relax, I'm not criticising you. I'm offering a solution." He informed us.

"What kind of solution?" I asked.

"A special Materia." The vendor announced, gleefully.

Immediately, my hand caught Yuffie by the scruff of the neck as she began to lurch forwards at the term 'Materia'.

"Down girl." I smirked, causing Red to snigger.

Yuffie freed herself from my grasp and calmed down, and I turned back to the confused vendor.

"She likes shiny things." I told him. "What kind of Materia?"

"It doesn't do much, unlike most Materia." The Vendor began. "But what it does do it store items, as much as you may need. It can keep food fresh for an infinite amount of time, and it has no limits. Just one of these Materia orbs allows you to carry your camping equipment, as many potions and phoenix downs as you can afford, your rations, and even any spare weapons you may have."

This, sounds like a godsend. Scratch that, it **is** a godsend.

"Why hasn't such a Materia been used before now?" Red asked.

The vendor jumped slightly; surprised that Red could talk, but got over the shock quickly.

"Before now, it was only in use by Shinra personnel." The vendor explained. "I can only sell these because I have a friend inside Shinra who supplies them to me."

Huh. Still, these so-called storage Materia could really help out.

"I'd still keep some potions and phoenix downs in easy access." The vendor spoke up. "It takes several moments to withdraw an item from the Materia, where it only takes a second to grab a potion from your pocket."

The man speaks sense.

"How much?" I asked.

"5 grand per Materia."

Definitely outside of my current price range.

"Yuffie, buy seven." I commanded.

Yuffie opened her mouth to object, but I beat her to it.

"Cloud will repay you. But these things will really help us out."

Grudgingly, the brat forked over 35000 gil. Rich brat.

I took my Materia orb and tested it out on my share of the rations. The immediately vanished, leaving no sign that they were ever there.

This, is so very helpful. I can already picture putting my tent into storage, while it's set up, and then when I withdraw it, it'll already be set up. This is taking some of the hard work out of this. And really, who can complain about that?

And this means that we can go a little more wild on the supplies, since there is no way we can exceed a maximum storage capacity.

Still limited by funding though. As we learnt when we tried to buy twice as many supplies than our budget could afford.

I can see that money is going to be our biggest issue now, not how much we can carry.

* * *

We entered the chocobo racing arena, flinching at the noise that the cheering produced. It was very loud, as I'm sure you gathered. Loud and irritating. I lead the way towards the building where all the gambling went on and entered, coughing on the thick air. Seems smoking was allowed in here.

That strongly disagreed with my nose. I hate smoking.

Grumbling, I grabbed the specs and odds of each of the next races chocobos, and brought them to the bench that Yuffie and Red were at.

"So, who do we bet on?" I asked, showing them the chocobos that were in the line up.

"I think Snowbell." Yuffie pointed at a white chocobo immediately. Two to one that she wins. We bet on her and she wins, we get double the money, and the item, which we either keep or trade for GP."

"No, we should wager on Slipstream." Red shook his head.

I glanced at the profile of the chocobo in question and raised an eyebrow ridge. Yuffie seemed confused as well.

"He's got the worst odds." Yuffie pointed out. "Almost certainly a loser."

"Whoever evaluated that chocobo did a very poor job." Red growled. "That chocobo has the most endurance out of all of them."

"How do you know?" Yuffie answered back.

"Because he used to play tag with wild chocobos." I told her.

Yuffie looked at us, confused.

"Why would you play tag with..."

"Because it is good practice at hunting. It's not like the chocobos know that I'm not about to eat them, so it's the closest thing to hunting, without actually hunting."

"And therefore, he'd know his chocobos." I pointed out. "I'm going to go with Red's judgement on this one."

"If you say so." Yuffie still sounded uncertain.

"Look at it this way." I began. "With ten to one chances against, we win, and we get ten times the reward. Plus the item."

"I suppose." Yuffie nodded.

Smiling, I moved back to the desk and placed my wager of 5000 gil (the very last coin to my name), and sat back down, waiting for the races to start.

While waiting, let me tell you how the betting system works here. Races occur every half hour, though not every race features the same chocobos. Plus there are different ranking races. But you have the half hour before each race to decide on which chocobo you want to place your bets on.

The clerk at the desk hands you images of each chocobo you may bet on, and each picture is taken just as the chocobo is placed at the starting line, so the pictures are of the chocobo here and now, not from last week. Along with the images, you're given the chocobo's evaluation, and the odds of that chocobo winning.

As Red discovered, when he was looking at the stats and the picture, the stats are **not** updated at the beginning of each race. When I asked the man at the desk about this, he told me that it made sure it wasn't too easy to make a winning bet. So the stats of each chocobo are of what the chocobo was like the **last** time it was in a race, so if a rider took his chocobo took away from the races for a week in order to train it, the stats would only show how good the chocobo was **before **that week of training, until it participated in a race.

Again, it makes certain that it wasn't easy as hell to just pick the winning bird. This is also the reason for the pictures, so those who can actually tell anything about a chocobo from looking at it, can make wagers based on that, in conjunction with the stats. If they felt the need, they can even request the stats of the chocobo the last ten times it took place in a race, to see if there was a pattern of growth in how well the chocobo raced.

And that meant that the chocobo that we were placing our five grand on, had recently been training, rather than racing, or the rider had been hiding how good his chocobo really was, so that the official odds were stacked against him, so prize money would be five times as much as if it was the bird with the best chances of winning. Again, the desk jockey told me that was a strategy that was often used. And since 5 to 1 was the lowest odds given, that meant that it gave the highest amount of prize money as a result. The problem with such a strategy was that it could be only used once per bird, since that bird would be marked as a winner.

The only people who could use that strategy repeatedly were those who had multiple birds, or caught lots of birds on a regular basis.

If this rider had been hiding his bird's full potential, then this would be the race he uses everything he has to win. And according to Red, this bird had (unofficially, of course) the best chances of winning.

The race started, and the large monitors dotted all over the place lit up, allowing those in the betting area to watch and cheer on their bird of choice.

True to Red's prediction, Slipstream did indeed have the best endurance, allowing it to sprint, non-stop, from the halfway mark to the finishing line, beating the favourite to win for a full minute. The vast majority of the room groaned with disappointment as Marche lost, obviously losing a fair sum of cash.

Grinning, I stepped up tot he counter, and handed in my ticket, accepting the reward. 25,000 gil, plus my original investment. That pays of the fee it cost us for the storage Materia. And the item was a very ornate looking bangle. About the same size as my watch, so not very large, more like a nicely decorated bracelet really. But it had eight Materia slots, and all eight were linked into pairs. So now I can link my blizzard with an all Materia, for attacking multiple foes at the same time (something that is possible without, but it required much more mental power then most people have). Or I could combine my fire with added effect (assuming we have that anywhere) so that my blade does fire damage.

Or I can give the bangle to Red, who needs to replace his crappy old one (with a whole three, unlinked slots). He was always better at the magic thing then me. I prefer kicking ass the old school way.

So, grabbing the profiles of the next races contenders, I moved back to Red and Yuffie.

"Got a new bangle for ya, Red." I commented, casually. "Dragon bangle, unless I'm mistaken."

The canine-like creature eyed the bangle, nodding in approval. Setting the profiles on Yuffie's lap for her to look through, I set about replacing Red's old bangle with this new one. Not like he could do it himself, lacking opposable thumbs. He can manage his own Materia perfectly fine, but replacing his own bangle was beyond him. So, it fell upon be to do this task for him. Me or Yuffie, but seeing as I had decided to give the thing to him, it fell upon me to help him equip it.

"I think we should bet on this black chocobo." Yuffie announced.

I finished clipping the bangle in place, watching in vague amusement as the piece of equipment shrunk in order to fit its new owner. That done I glanced at the profiles and sat up straight.

"Hell yes we vote on that chocobo." I declared.

The picture was of a very familiar black chocobo, and its rider patting it on the side of its head. How many times had that bugger beaten me in the races whenever I played Final Fantasy VII? I've honestly lost count. Either way, Joe's chocobo was a winner, and that was a guarantee. Nearly everyone else in the room seemed to agree with me, as they were all placing their money on the black chocobo. The only people who weren't were the ones who didn't seem to know who Joe was, or why he was so special.

Now since the winnings for Joe winning will only be double what we initially pay, we're going to have to raise the amount we decide to wager.

So that was why I wagered 15,000 gil. We should be getting 30,000 gil for our investment. There is always the possibility that Teioh will lose, but that chance is so unlikely, I'm surprised I've not betted 30,000 gil on him. Oh wait, that would be because I'm not stupid, and I'm not planning on crippling us if we lose our wager.

Not likely, but possible.

Half an hour later, and I was collecting the winnings, and exchanging the precious watch item prize for a large sum of GP. I already have a watch, I don't need another.

It continued this way for another five races, one of which we lost, because the chocobo we wagered on was injured during the race. The rider responsible, a short tempered young man who rode a white chocobo, had kicked the green chocobo in the leg, injuring it enough to win, only be disqualified and banned from participating in future races.

But after all the betting we'd made, we decided that 300,000 gil was more than enough. Shame we were going to have to share a majority of the money with the rest of AVALANCHE. At least I got my money back from the golden ticket, with interest.

I should come here with Red and Yuffie more often. Red's wisdom and her guts made us a lot of money this day. And we got a fair bit of GP, and both Yuffie and Red had dragon bangles, for their Materia casting goodness.

We even had an X-Potion as a prize for the third race. Now, if ever one of us seriously injured, we can pour this stuff down their throat and it'll be like nothing had ever happened to them.

On leaving the chocobo racing arena, we decided on going to Wonder Square, to check out the arcades. Fun and games were the order of business now, not filling our pockets with money. And I wanted to enjoy myself while I could.

Upon entering the arcade, I moved towards the snowboarding game. I've never actually been snowboarding, so I have no idea how accurately this machine will simulate the real deal, but hey, I wanted to give it a try, since it always looked fun on the game. Well, that was the plan.

As I neared the machine, a small group, dressed in a uniform that screamed 'security' made towards me. Well, half of them made towards me, the other half made towards my two companions.

Instincts screaming that this could be trouble, I turned 180 degrees, and started to move towards the exit. Seems that fun and games were a no-go. The other two, noticing that I was making a retreat, followed suit, and joined up with me.

The security guys were obviously trying not to cause a scene, and that was the only reason they hadn't caught up to us. We were lucky to have seen them before they had a chance to catch up, but now that they realized that we were aware of their intentions, they were speeding up their walk. Still not running, as they still didn't want to cause a scene.

Why are they after us?

The moment we exited the arcade room, we ran. Less people to get in our, or their, way, so running was a good option. The security team obviously agreed, since they broke into a sprint the second we did. Well tough luck on them, they're chasing a ninja, a lion-like creature, and a lizard-man, all of whom have been getting a fair amount of exercise over the past month, giving us the decided edge.

Well, they did get advantage in numbers, as we learnt when another security team blocked off the portals to the rest of Gold Saucer.

Change of plans. Through the fire escape doors we go, my shoulder aching from being used as a battering ram to force it open. Seems they were set to automatically open when a fire alarm went off, and stayed locked at all other times.

Well, no door can withstand the might of my shoulder. Even if they do give me an ache in retaliation.

The fire escape stairway brought back painful memories of the stairwell back in Shinra Tower. This was amplified when I walked straight into the barrel of another security guard's pistol. He fired the pistol, with a soft 'thump' sound, the usual bang being suppressed by the silencer. Guess they really don't want to cause a scene.

Strange how he missed me at point blank range though.

"Ha, you missed me!" I gloated, hand reaching for my gunblade.

I hesitated at Yuffie's gasp. Red growling made me realize that something was wrong, and I wasn't aware of what it was.

"That wasn't necessary." Red told the security man.

Must be serious, if Red just spoke out loud to a perfect stranger. Turning, I planned on asking just what was wrong, but I caught sight of what was wrong. It was lying at my feet.

My body, that is.

Bullet hole through the head. The bastard hadn't missed. He'd gone and killed me, and I hadn't even realized it.

"It stopped you from running." The security guard sneered. "You're the brats who came in with the blond with the oversized sword, aren't you?"

Yuffie nodded, staring at my body. I didn't blame her, though I had more of an excuse. I'm a ghost here. The miserable git killed me.

"Let us revive him." Red growled. "We won't run."

The man paused for a second, before nodding. Yuffie crouched at my body, pouring a bottle of phoenix down down my throat. I watched, in morbid fascination as the bullet wound in my head sealed itself up, spitting out the bullet that had lodged itself in my head while it was at it.

Damnit, that better not leave me any brain damage. I'm still recovering from Cel and his electro therapy session.

Once the wound had completely sealed itself, I felt a jolt of pain at my stomach, before being pulled, and not gently, into my own body. I felt my heart begin pumping my blood again. I also felt the phantom pains from where a bullet hit torn through flesh and bone.

I sat up quickly, gasping, as my body automatically get all its natural functions to kick start themselves, having stopped during the minute I was dead.

"That was unnecessary." I gasped, fishing a potion out of my pack and downing it in one gulp. "I'd have stopped at being cornered."

"Wasn't about to take any chances." The security officer sneered. "You're part of a group that includes the man with the gun-arm that murdered a lot of people in the Battle Square. Guilt by association, you go to Coral Prison with them."

I snarled, angrily.

"That isn't a fair punishment for guilt by association." I spat. "That's like saying the brother of a murderer deserves the same punishment as the murderer for being his brother."

"Six people dead by companions of yours. Companions, you are on friendly terms with. Your association with the blond is willing, not by blood."

"Right, and I'm assuming that you know we're associated with Barret from security footage. So why are you not checking the security footage of the Battle Square?"

"The Battle Square was under renovation at the time, including rewiring the security systems. Your friends were caught on the scene."

"Wrong place at the wrong time." Red sighed.

"Even so, it has been decided that you go to Coral Desert to live out the rest of your days. You can come willingly, I we can dump your corpses down there."

"We'll come willingly." I groaned, picking myself up. "Dying hurts too much."

* * *

And thus, we were left to rot in the middle of a desert. Well, admittedly, they did leave us at the outskirts of a small town, but we're still stuck in the middle of a natural prison. I can last quite a while, seeing as I thrive in the heat, but being a water dragon, I need water as well. Water that I can't see.

"Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten me in." Yuffie moaned. "I'm starting to regret ever joining up with you guys."

"What did we do?" I snapped. "Nothing. The Gold Saucer staff seems to believe that just because we know someone who was at the scene of a crime, we are just as accountable for the crime as them."

Yuffie sighed, eying some of the locals that had been staring at us, wearily.

"Let's find Cloud, try and figure out what's going on." I grunted. "And try to think of a way out of here."

"Scratch that, we should just get inside one of those derelict buildings." Red growled. "I don't like the look of the locals."

I can see why. Knives and chains were being held, out in the open. And seeing as all eyes were on us, I can guess, quite easily, who the intended victims are.

"I agree." I grimaced, pointing. "Let's head to that building over there."

At the nods of my two companions, we moved, trying not to make any sudden motions, in case it triggered a rush of criminals. Just to help deter them, I unsheathed Talon, holding it in the open. It did seem to make them hesitate, as where before they were moving slowly towards us, now they were standing still, staring at us.

"Gotta thank the guys at Gold Saucer for letting us keep our stuff." I sighed.

"They want to imprison us, not feed us to the wolves." Yuffie pointed out. "Some monsters thrive in this sort of climate."

"Figures."

We entered the building, and stopped in surprise at the sight of Barret firing his gun arm at a nearby couch. Cloud, Tifa and a cat on an oversized stuffed moogle were standing in equal surprise at the act. Until a body fell to the floor from where he'd been crouching behind the sofa, out of sight.

"Didn't want none of ya to get involved…" Barret cursed, turning away from us.

"Hey that's Cloud's line!" Aeris' voice laughed, as the owner of the voice walked in from behind me. "…It's too dangerous, I can't let you get involved…blah, blah blah…"

"Yeah." Tifa agreed. "We're already involved in this."

"Or haven't you noticed that we're all stuck in this prison with you?" I asked, sarcastically.

"I saw you and hurried here. Barret, just tell us what's going on." The Ancient pleaded.

"You guys…" Barret sighed.

"I heard that the murders at the Battle Arena were done by a man with a gun-arm. …Was that you?" Red asked.

"There's another…another man that got a gun grafted inta one of his arms." Barret grunted. "It was four years ago…"

**Barret hopped over a gap in the ground. Dyne followed behind, head bowed, as the pair moved away from the ruins of the Mako Reactor, which they had been examining to figure out the cause of the explosion. Their investigation had wielded no results other than what was already known.**

**Both men looked up at the sound of panting, and Barret's eyes widened in surprise when he saw one of the older residents of Corel running towards them as fast as he could.**

"**Barret! Dyne! Come quick! The village's being attacked! It's Shinra soldiers!" The old man yelled out to them.**

"**What!? What the hell happened?" Barret cursed, moving to get to the older man.**

"**Hey, Barret! It's not over yet! Everyone's waiting! Let's go back to the village!" Dyne urged his childhood friend.**

**Before the black man could reply, a gunshot echoed through the mountains, and the old man fell to the ground, eyes lifeless. A pool of blood began to spread across the ground upon which he lay.**

"**Old man!" Barret cursed, angrily.**

"**C'mon, Barret! We gotta hurry!" Dyne called out, noticing the approaching Shinra troopers.**

**Barret made a sound of agreement, and began to chase after Dyne, who had moved to go a different way back to Corel. The Shinra troops, noticing the two men, began to fire at them.**

**Barret made a sound of distress as a couple of the shots only barely missed him. Cursing, he wished he had a weapon of some kind on his person, so that he could at least defend himself from the attacking troops. As it was, he was just barely surviving by luck.**

**A blond woman in a red dress approached the soldiers, noting their poor aim with distaste.**

"**You can shoot all day and never hit them with aim like that." She scolded the soldiers.**

"**Shu'up!" Barret yelled out in anger.**

**Scarlet shook her head in annoyance and pushed one of the troopers to the side, grabbing his rifle. Quickly checking that the thing was loaded, she rested the end of it against her shoulder and lined up the iron sights.**

"**Haa, ha, ha!! Stop playing around and cover me!" She laughed.**

"**Watch out!" Dyne shouted, suddenly changing direction to move towards Barret. **

**This action caused Scarlet's shot to miss him, but it was enough to make him lose his footing. After a second of trying to regain his balance, he fell over the edge. Barret, noticing his friend's plight, leapt forwards, grabbing Dyne's left hand, stopping him from falling.**

"**Dyne!! Hang on!! Listen to me!! You're comin' back to the village, hear!!?" Barret called down to his friend.**

**Dyne chuckled weakly.**

"**Yeah… I ain't lettin' go… You're comin' back… Everyone's waitin' for ya… Eleanor…and Marlene… They all waitin' on us…" He smirked.**

**Before any more could be said, Scarlet, having lined up another shot, fired. The bullet hit Barret's hand, and went right through, until it did the same to Dyne's hand. Both men gave a cry of pain, letting go. Barret, realizing his folly, peered over the edge, in time to see Dyne fall out of sight.**

"From then on, I couldn't use my right arm no more." Barret continued. "…I was depressed for a while. But then I threw away my artificial arm and got this gun grafted in. Got a new right arm to get revenge on the Shinra, who took everything away… Back then, I heard the doc say there was another man who got the same operation as me. But, his was the left arm."

The older man sighed, looking at each of us in turn. Cloud was silent, obviously deep in thought.

"But…" Aeris began, sounding confused. "Dyne's injury was the same as yours, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Tifa nodded. "He was deceived by the Shinra, too. He'll probably join us to fight against the Shinra."

"…wouldn't bet on it." Barret countered the martial artist. "I gotta 'pologize to Dyne before I can rest in peace. An' that's why, I gotta go alone."

At the girls continued confused expression, I decided to enlighten them to what I thought the reason was.

"Not everyone reacts to pain or grief on that scale in the same way." I pointed out. "Barret decided to use his anger against the Shinra to help prevent more people from feeling such pain. But Dyne might not use his grief as constructively. After all, what does killing a room full of innocents have to do with getting back at Shinra."

Barret nodded, sadly.

"Do whatever you want… Is that what you want to hear?" Cloud asked. "Well, I can't let you do it. Because, if you die on me, I'm gonna have nightmares."

"Heaven forbid." I grunted.

"Barret, this isn't the end." Aeris spoke up.

"Weren't you going to save the Planet?" Tifa asked.

"Shit! Tifa, you oughtta know by now." Barret shook his head.

"…That's all right. I'm not so different from you." The martial arts expert said.

"That's easier to understand. It's you, Barret." Aeris smiled.

"So there it is, Barret." Cloud assumed his authority voice. "So I guess it'll be Barret, me, and… Spike."

I feel so honoured. No, really, I do. Seeing as since we've left Midgar, this is the first time I've actually been in Cloud's party. Could have sworn that he was trying to avoid me.

"Do we know where Dyne might be?" I asked.

"I asked around, looking for a possible way out..." Aeris spoke up. "Apparently, the person to talk to is a Mr Coates. Maybe he knows something?"

Aeris asked around? In this place? Well, that might make sense, seeing as she grew up in the slums. She'd have to have **some** way of knowing how to survive in such a place. And really, this place is just a very, very, **very** hot version of that.

"Then let's go talk to Mr Coates." Cloud grunted.

Mr Coates was a very out of place character in this place. Everyone was wearing rags and whatever they could find or salvage. Mr Coates was wearing... a tailor made suit... Why hasn't he been killed yet?

"Can I help you?" The snivelling little man asked, nose turned up at us.

Oh, he and I are going to get along swell.

"Where's Dyne?" Barret demanded.

Mr Coates gave a snort of barely concealed laughter at the demand.

"If you honestly think I'm going to tell you, then think again." He sneered.

"Are you really in any position to talk like that?" I asked, pulling my coat open, so that he could see my sheathed weapon, along with Cloud's Buster Sword and Barret's gun arm.

"If you kill me, you'll never get to leave this wretched hell hole." He smirked.

That explains his apparent immunity to the rest of the prisoners. He goes, so does their chance of ever leaving. But that left holes in his logic here.

"What if we don't actually care about leaving?" I asked, glaring.

That got the bastard's attention. It also got Cloud and Barret's attention, but they wisely kept their mouths shut.

"What do you mean, 'what if you don't care about leaving'? Everyone cares about leaving."

"I don't. Or haven't you noticed that I'm a giant lizard? I **thrive **in this type of place. I could easily spend the rest of my days here."

Ok, I'm bending the truth a little there.

The suit wearing man swallowed, nervously.

"Then what do you want?" He asked.

"To see Dyne." I told him.

"I can't." He gasped.

He was immediately pinned against the wall, via my hand against his neck.

"I can make your life a misery." I snarled. "Do you see these teeth of mine? They're a sign that I'm a carnivore. You, are prey."

"You can't!" Coates shrieked. "That's cannibalism!"

"Do I look human?" I brought my face closer to his. "I already said I'm a lizard, and therefore, **not** human."

"Please, I can't."

Wrong answer. I grabbed his arm and twisted it around, almost to breaking point.

"Tell me."

"He'll kill me!" He sobbed.

I twisted slightly harder and heard the crack of the humans bone beginning to break.

"And what do you think being eaten does?" I asked. "Grant you immortality?"

"He's at the garbage heap on the outskirts of the town!" Coates wailed.

I released my grip on him, allowing him to slump to the floor, cradling his arm. I turned to Cloud and Barret, smiling as if I hadn't just broken a man's arm for information.

"Got what you need?" I asked, I asked cheerfully.

"You don't really...?" Cloud began, and I frowned at him in disgust.

"No, I do not eat humans." I snapped. "I eat the same as a human would. I have a preference for fries, steak, and spices. Human, or even raw meat is not on my menu."

I could just hear Coates looking up at me, eyes wide as he realized that I would **not** have eaten him. I'd bluffed. And he fell for it.

"Garbage heap on the outskirts." Cloud nodded. "I was left just outside the place when I was dumped here. I know the way."

Cloud turned and left, taking the lead. Shrugging, I followed the blond swordsman, who moved with a purpose. Why is he moving with a purpose exactly? It's not like he's the one who has a bone to pick with Dyne. If anything, Barret should be the one moving with a purpose. However, the Mr T wannabe was slugging behind, like he wasn't certain of this course of action.

Well, he was going to have to suck it up. Dyne is the only real obstacle to us leaving this wasteland.

The garbage heap was exactly that, a garbage dump, on the outskirts of town, near the edge of a cliff. I glanced at some of the junk that had been stacked so that it was several stories high. It didn't exactly look very safe. Scratch that, it looked like it could topple at any moment. Figures that this is where a psychopath would hang around.

We found Dyne easily enough; he was standing at the edge of the cliff, gazing out at the desert wasteland. He was similar to Barret in build, large, muscular. The key difference was that he was white, where Barret was black, and that he had wilder hair, compared to Barret's crew cut. They were even dressed similarly. But what did catch my eye was the pendant Dyne wore. A golden pendant that hung from his neck. Well that, and the man's left arm, which had a gun-arm. The difference between his gun-arm and Barret's though, was that where Barret's was a Gatling Gun, Dyne's was essentially a cannon attached to his arm.

"Dyne… Is that you?" Barret asked, somewhat hesitantly.

"Now that's a voice I haven't heard in years…" Dyne murmured. "A voice I'll never forget…"

"I always hoped I'd be able to see you again someday…" Barret confessed. "I knew you were alive somewhere…we had the same operation."

Dyne pivoted around and fired at Barret, who barely avoided getting shot.

"What's that? ……I hear her voice." The smaller man mumbled, looking around, in a crazy manner.

Barret remained silent, though his face betrayed his confusion.

"I hear her voice, Eleanor's voice. Begging me…not to hate your rotten guts. That's why I didn't hunt you down…" Dyne rambled.

"…I know I was stupid." Barret told the white man. "I'm not asking you to forgive me. But… What're you doin' in a place like this? Why ya wanna kill those that ain't even involved? Why?"

"Why!?" Dyne snapped. "The hell do you care for!? Are the people killed going to understand 'why'? Are the people of Corel going to understand just hearing Shinra's excuses? I don't CARE what the reason is! All they give us are artillery and stupid excuses… What's left is a world of despair and emptiness…"

Again, Barret was silent.

"You still want to hear 'why'?" Dyne asked. "…All right, I'll tell you. 'Cause I want to destroy everything. The people of this city. This city itself. The whole world! I got nothing left in this world. Corel, Eleanor…… Marlene……"

"Dyne, Marlene…… Marlene's still alive." Barret told him.

This time Dyne was silent, though interested in hearing what Barret had to say.

"I went back into town. I thought she was gone for sure. That is why I wanted to be by her side till the end. That's when I found her…found Marlene."

Still, Dyne was silent.

"She's in Midgar. Let's go see her together, all right?"

Dyne hesitated for several seconds, seeming to be in some form of internal conflict, before he looked at Barret with a sigh.

"So……she's still alive…" Dyne shook his head. "All right, Barret. I guess that means you and I gotta fight."

"What!?" Barret shouted in shock.

"How the fuck did he come to that conclusion?" I asked, eyebrow ridges raised.

"Eleanor's alone all by herself. I've got to take Marlene to her." Dyne explained.

"Dyne…are you insane!?" Barret snapped.

"Evidently." I answered.

"Marlene wants to see her Mom, don't she?" Dyne asked, rhetorically.

Before Barret could open his mouth, Dyne fired at him. The black man hit the dirt, avoiding the blast.

"Stop, Dyne! I can't die yet!" Barret cursed.

"Oh yeah?" The white man sneered. "Well my life's been over ever since then."

Again Dyne fired at Barret, this time managing to graze the larger man's shoulder.

"Stop it! I don't wanna fight you!" Barret yelled.

"Barret!" Cloud called out.

"Cloud, you stay the hell out of it! This is MY problem!" Barret yelled.

Cloud paused, uncertain of whether to do as the former leader of AVALANCHE had told him to, or to get involved anyway. Eventually, seeing that I wasn't planning on hopping into the fight any time soon, he hung back himself.

Barret opened fire on Dyne, who sprinted behind a stack of destroyed cars for cover. With the smaller man out of sight, the former leader of AVALANCHE moved to get behind cover himself, but was forced to dive to the ground as Dyne stepped out from his hiding place and threw a Molotov cocktail at him. The eruption barely missed Barret, who tossed a grenade of his own at Dyne. Dyne cursed, running away from where the explosive had landed. The explosion toppled the stack of cars, and for a moment, it looked as if Dyne was going to be crushed under them, but at the last second he managed to roll out of the way.

Barret crouched down, arm outstretched, hand helping hold the other arm in place. One eye was closed, showing that he was trying to aim. Dyne stood up from behind one of the toppled cars, and immediately regretted it, as Barret opened fire, several bullets managing to hit Dyne's right arm. Giving a cry of pain, Dyne ducked back under cover, but threw another Molotov cocktail as a parting gift. Barret shifted his aim and shot the incinerary grenade while it was still flying through the air, creating a cloud of fire that dissipated quickly, not having any fuel in the air.

Dyne used the distraction to sprint to a different hiding place, and took the opportunity to take several shots at Barret, who cursed as his leg was shot. The Mr T wannabe started limping to a different stack of garbage and threw a Thunder spell at Dyne's new hiding place. Judging from the yelp, the metal of the junk had conducted the electricity, while Dyne had been leaning on it.

Both men chose that moment to come out of their hiding positions and fired. Time seemed to still as everyone looked on to see who had been hit.

"Shit!" I cursed, as I felt Dyne's bullet miss Barret and just barely miss myself.

Blood began to stain Dyne's tank top, and he stumbled back, cursing. Barret began to move towards Dyne, but the white man lifted his gun-arm, enough to aim it at his childhood friend.

"Back!" He commanded. "…it wasn't just my arm……back then……I lost something irreplaceable. I don't know where I went wrong…"

"Dyne…" Barret shook his head. "I don't know either, man. Is this the only way…we can resolve this?"

"I told you…" The smaller man grunted, shifting his aim and firing into the sky. "I… I want to destroy everything…" Again he fired into the air. "Everything… This crazy world… Even me…"

"An' what 'bout Marlene? What's gonna happen to her!?" Barret demanded.

"Think about it… Barret…" Dyne smiled sadly. "How old was Marlene back then…? Even if I did go to her now…she wouldn't even know me… And what's more…Barret… These hands are a little too stained to carry Marlene anymore…"

Barret remained silent, watching as Dyne tore the pendant from his neck. After staring at it for several seconds, he hurled it at Barret, who caught it in surprise. Looking up at Dyne, blood was beginning to seep down from Dyne's mouth. Evidently, one of Barret's bullets had punctured his lung.

"Barret… Give that pendant to Marlene… It was… Eleanor's…my wife's memento…"

Barret nodded.

"All right…"

"Wow… Marlene's…already…… 4.…… Barret… Don't……make…… Don't ever make Marlene…… cry…"

As he spoke, Dyne backed up to the edge of the cliff. He paused once there was no more ground left, gazing down, as if trying to see the bottom.

"Dyne? Dyne!"

With a last, sad smile at Barret, Dyne stretched his arms out and allowed himself to fall backwards off the cliff. Swearing, Barret ran to the edge, looking down where Dyne had fallen.

"Dyne!" he yelled down, as if his old friend would still be able to hear him. "…Dyne. Me an' you were the same… My hands ain't any cleaner…… I shouldn't be able to carry… Marlene either…"

Obviously, there was no answer, and Barret screamed out in both fury and anguish, slamming his fist into the ground several times. Eventually, he was just crouching there, head bowed. Cloud moved to the larger man and rested his hand on his shoulder. I took one last look at the garbage heap before walking away.

* * *

The mugger flew to the ground, nose broken. He'd had the guts to try and mug me while I was walking about, alone. I was teaching him the folly of such a decision.

When Cloud and Barret had decided to go to Mr Coates to try and get entered for the chocobo races, it had been decided that I should sit this one out, seeing as my presence would likely invoke some negative emotions from the snobbish weasel. Negative emotions that would make him deny our request to have a chance of leaving this hell hole.

For the sake of it, I was just walking around the town. I really don't feel like sitting in one spot right about now. Especially since I have no idea how long it'll take for Cloud to win the races.

Unfortunately, being by my lonesome means that the crooks in the neighbourhood got the impression that I was easy pickings. Shame most of them were absolute weaklings. I hadn't even needed to use my gunblade. I was teaching them the folly of their ways old school style, with my fists, feet and tail.

The mugger swore, obviously upset that his already crooked nose was now broken, probably making it even worse. He tried to pick himself up, but found himself trapped, as I pressed my foot down against his throat. The more the idiot tried to struggle, the harder I pressed down, choking him. Eventually, I removed my foot, and he gasped for breath, filling his lungs with the much needed air.

My tail connected with his temple, knocking him out.

Can't you just tell I'm trying to get over my bitterness of being shot in the head? I can still feel the phantom pains from it. And I ran out of vicodin during the three day hike to get to Corel, and I won't be getting any more any time soon, since, as Tifa so wonderfully pointed out, we don't want to risk me becoming addicted to the stuff.

I will not be turning into Doctor Gregory House, MD. Not anytime soon, at least.

Still, I find it irritating how it's always my **face** that gets the raw end of the deal. I mean, come on. I was thrown off a mountain and had the flesh from my forehead torn to the point where my skull was visible, if Red and Tifa are to be believed. Shouldn't that have filled out the quota of head injuries for the next year? No, instead I get Sephiroth permanently scaring me. And now I've been shot in the head.

Bad guys of the world, I'm telling you now: leave my head alone!

_'I really doubt the bad guys of the world will care for your demands.'_

_Shut up._

_'Make me._

Again I wish I had some way of gagging that irritating little lizard...

_'Oi, watch who you're calling 'little'.'_

I sigh, shaking my head and return to the house that everyone else was waiting in. As I enter, I catch sight of Tifa and Aeris sitting on the couch and ask a question that had been on my mind since my untimely demise and prompt resurrection.

"What the hell is Phoenix Down made of?"

Both Tifa and Aeris give me an odd look.

"Why would you want to know that?" Tifa asked.

"Well seeing as I got my brains blown out, and then got up and shrugged it off a minute later, I'm kinda curious just what Phoenix Down **is**."

"You got killed?"

"Yes, by a trigger-happy security guard back at Gold Saucer."

Both girls gave me a look of sympathy.

"General Phoenix Down is synthesized Phoenix blood." Aeris told me. "Bottled Phoenix blood heals the damage more than just beyond the amount required to bring someone back from the dead. The only thing more effective is being resurrected by an actual Phoenix."

"Uh." I grunted, in understanding. "And how can you tell the difference between synthesized Phoenix blood and the real deal?"

"The synthesized Phoenix blood is a more orange colour, where true Phoenix blood is more of a royal red colour."

"I see." I nodded.

I'm not even going to ask how one goes about synthesizing Phoenix blood. It's probably going to go over my head, anyway. In one ear and out the other, as they say.

At that moment, a man, wearing a tailed suit, not unlike Mr Coates, entered the building. He had black hair tied into a ponytail, and glasses.

"Are you the friends of Cloud Strife?" He asked.

"We are." Tifa nodded, after evaluating the man, checking for any sign that he was a threat.

"I'm Mr Hyse, the assistant manager of Gold Saucer." The suit monkey introduced himself. "Mr Strife has just won a chocobo race, earning himself, and you, your freedom. Dio also apologises for the misunderstanding, and his decided to give you a buggy in order to help you in your travels."

That said, he handed me the keys for the vehicle and nodded.

"Again, we apologise for any inconvenience." He said, before turning and walking out.

I stared dumbly at the keys, before looking up and grinning.

"I'm driving!" I announced, clenching my fist around the keys so that they couldn't be taken from me.

Tifa groaned, realizing that now that I had the keys, there was nothing that could be done. Humming a catchy tune in victory, I marched out the door and gaped at the buggy.

"Dude, dude, **dude!**" I cried out. "Look at the size of this thing! This thing is like a freaking tank. Scratch that, a freaking amphibious tank. Rivers of the world beware; we need no bridges to cross you now!"

Now even more cheerful, I wrenched open the door to the driver's seat and sat myself down, planting the keys in the ignition and turning. The powerful engine roared to life, and I sighed happily, revving the engine a few times for good measure.

"We. Are. Doomed." Tifa moped.

"Monsters of the world beware, you are but squishies to this beast." I roared, revving the engine again.

"We aren't the doomed ones." Red noted. "But the world in general will be destroyed long before Sephiroth or the Shinra manage it."

"Stop interrupting my joy!" I shouted, revving the engine some more. "And get in. Where's Cloud? We need to pick him up."

Aeris put away the phone I hadn't even realized she'd been using and looked up at me.

"Cloud'll be here in a couple of minutes. He says he knows where we need to go next."

Grinning, I revved the engine **even** more.

"Well hop in the back, and we'll test drive this thing until Cloud gets here."

"You'll understand if we say no thanks." Red called out. "We'd prefer to be in one piece by the time Cloud gets here."

"Spoil sports." I snorted.

Going with the logic of 'ah, who needs 'em anyway', I put the pedal to the metal and roared off, cheering loudly. If I ever meet Dio, I am definitely thanking him for this beast of a machine.


	22. The Turks Strike Back

Ok, seriously, sorry about the time between this update and the previous. I could say all kinds of things, such as 'life got in the way', but for the most part, that'd be a lie. Yes, there were times that I was physically unable to consider writing, the last two months being one such example (my bedroom was being completely redecorated, so my PC and games consoles were in storage for the duration) but for the most part it was pure laziness on my part.

Seriously, this long and only 16 pages to show? I'm banging my head on the desk as I write this, shamed.

I got lazy and kept telling myself 'oh, I'll do it tomorrow, something seemingly significant has taken my time for now like Metal Gear Solid 4, Crisis Core ect ect.'

You deserved better. I won't make excuses. I'll try to do better. But I won't give a hollow promise, and until January, I might not be able to do much, but I will **try**, and for now, that is all I can promise.

Once again, I'm sorry. I would ask forgiveness, but seeing as I haven't forgiven myself, I'm clearly not worthy of any forgiveness.

* * *

Chapter 21: The Turks Strike Back

I was laughing. Manically. The rest of AVALANCHE wasn't. They were screaming. Yes, even Cait Sith, who is a robot with nothing to fear. It seems that my driving does that to people. Can't see why, though. This is the most fun I've had in ages.

According to the sat-nav on the dash board, and my cell phone, which I had downloaded a sat-nav for as well, we were headed south/south-east. In that direction, according to the sat-nav, was Gongaga, which according to Cloud, was where Sephiroth was headed. Now, if my increasingly faulty memory (_that bullet to the brains can't have helped)_ was correct, then Gongaga was going to be a familiar sight.

Had to wait until we got there before I could confirm my thoughts though.

Must remember to talk to Jade about the memory. I would phone her, but it isn't something I want the others to hear, so for the moment, only barely, mind you, it wasn't serious enough to warrant calling her. When I next meet her face to face though, this warrants my asking. Big time.

Have I mentioned that I love this buggy? I do. Big time. It kicks so much ass, it's untrue. Monster blocking the way? Just run it over, no problemo. And it really cuts our traveling time down to size. Normally, this would be a several day hike. Possibly even a week long hike.

With my driving, we were getting there before the end of the day.

My driving is awesome like that.

I gave a whoop of joy as I drove the buggy up a hill as fast as it could go, launching the vehicle into the air. AVALANCHE just screamed louder. I wasn't happy with that, I decided, and began to fiddle with the gizmos on the dash board. Finally finding what I believed was the on/off button for the radio, I was treated to the windscreen wipers turning on.

High-tech this buggy may be, but the controls for it are awful. Why does the button that should be giving me music make the windscreen wipers start? It isn't even raining, there was no **need** for the windscreen wipers. It was pointless.

Finally finding the button for the radio, I was treated to some heavy metal music that I bobbed my head in time to. And as an added bonus, it drowned out the sounds of screaming from the back.

I suppose I should be thankful that Cloud was out cold, seeing as he was sitting next to me in the front, he had the power to scream and still be heard. I don't want any screaming getting in the way of good music. Unless it's the music that's screaming, otherwise, that's fine.

Ex-SOLDIER my ass. Cloud fainted after the first time I got some air in this baby. Well, I think that's what it was. Chances are, he's trying to pretend this is all some nightmare though, by closing his eyes and thinking of his happy place, in order to repress the memory.

I send the buggy into a barrel roll and he jerks his head up, looking like he wanted nothing more than to scream. He didn't though, thankfully for my eardrums.

He has a very high pitched scream, and I want it nowhere near my ears.

* * *

I rolled the buggy to a stop at the edge of the forest that led to Gongaga. Of course, when I say I rolled to a stop, I mean, I **rolled** to a stop. Luckily, I was wearing the seatbelt. Several of the passengers in the back didn't seem to care so much about their safety, so they went rolling with the buggy.

I slid the key from the ignition and jumped out the vehicle, taking a deep breath. Damn, I miss being behind the wheel of that beast already. Driving is fun. And addictive.

"Please tell me that he won't be driving again any time soon." Yuffie moaned, looking very green.

"Oh Gods, I hope not." Cloud replied, looking just as green.

Huh, all that driving, and I don't actually feel queasy.

"Guess it's true that being behind the wheel stops you from motion sickness." I mused aloud, earning myself a number of glares.

"Spike, give me the keys." Cloud grunted, holding out his hand.

"Sod off." I snapped, putting the keys in the one place Yuffie's pickpocket skills wouldn't be able to filch them, the storage materia.

The storage materia apparently had some kind of anti-everyone-proofing. Since the materia recognized **me** as the user, having been the first one to use it, from now on, nothing could be taken out of storage without me being willing for whatever item to be taken.

Handy for protecting things from certain kleptomaniac ninjas.

Only problem is that it doesn't allow you to store other materia orbs within it.

Stretching, ignoring the glares everyone was sending my way, I turned to face the forest that was preventing me from just driving right up to Gongaga. There **was** a road, past tense being emphasized there. The forest had long since reclaimed the ground that had been stolen from it to create the road.

Can't be a very busy place then, if the forest was able to grow over this important stretch of land. Still, at least we could see the road, even if we couldn't use it. It meant that we would still be able to follow it on foot, and get to Gongaga without delay.

Though if I had to wager any money on the matter, I'd bet that Sephiroth completely bypassed this town. Nothing of significance here. So unless Sephiroth was taking in the sights, seriously, what purpose would he have to be here? He was spotted coming in this general direction, if Dio's letter could be trusted. That didn't strictly mean he was visiting.

Try explaining that to Cloud though. Damned git wasn't willing to make any assumptions that involved not investigating a small settlement. If I made an assumption about him visiting any of the towns or villages that weren't actually included in the game though, he'd probably jump at the chance to investigate.

I call it obsessed.

He calls it being careful.

I laugh in his face at what he calls it.

But putting that aside, we're still going to Gongaga, if for no other reason than to go for the sake of it.

We begin to traverse the overgrown road, hopping over the odd root and ducking under low hanging branches. Well, Cloud got whipped by one, but that was just me getting back at him for the wild goose chase. I wonder whether just pointing in a random direction and saying 'Sephiroth' would make him go running in whatever direction you were pointing. It'd be interesting to test out one of these days, but I doubt the tongue lashing he'd give would be worth it.

It takes half an hour to traverse the Gongaga forest. The residents of the town seriously need to do something about the forest that had surrounded them; anyone else would think that they were trying to be secluded in the world.

We enter a small clearing, and I can see something that makes me frown.

"Mako Reactor." I mutter.

The rest of AVALANCHE turns to face the direction I'm looking in, and spot the derelict tower. It was easily in disrepair, though there was no sign that it was sabotage, unlike the Corel reactor. It just looked... broken.

"Damned Shinra are everywhere." Barret cursed.

"Couldn't have been running for long though." Aeris mused. "The forest didn't show any sign of decay."

Cloud nodded.

"Unlike near Midgar, where the very ground is dead. The only life around those parts are humans, and monsters. And the monsters were weak, compared to places rich in life."

"Like here." Aeris nodded.

"Figures." I grunted.

"Wonder why Shinra aren't interested in that Reactor." Red mused, softly.

"I heard that the reactor had a meltdown." Yuffie spoke up.

Everyone turned to look at her, and she took a step back, looking uncomfortable with all the attention focused on her.

"I passed though here some time back." The shinobi explained. "About three years ago, the reactor had a meltdown. It killed most of the population. There were so few people left, and no sign of it being deliberate, that Shinra left them alone."

'Unlike Corel' was left unsaid, though all of us thought it.

"Once again, figures." I shook my head.

"Let's check out the ruins." Cloud suggested.

I nodded my head, and the others gave no sign of disagreeing, so we changed directions slightly, so that we were moving towards the reactor, rather than the town. We were halfway there, when we reached another clearing, and paused, hearing voices.

"Hey, Rude. Who do you like?" A familiar voice asked.

We moved closer to the source of the voice and found Reno and Rude, looking like they were just chilling. After several seconds, Reno spoke up again.

"What are you getting so embarrassed about? Come on? Who do you like?" He insisted.

Rude remained silent for several seconds before turning to face Reno.

"Tifa." He admitted.

Reno made a sound of surprise, looking at Rude with wide eyes.

"That's a tough one." Reno clicked his tongue. "But, poor Elena. She...... you......"

"No, she likes Tseng." Rude corrected his partner.

"I never knew that!" Reno exclaimed. "But Tseng likes that Ancient..."

"What are they talking about?" Cloud asked, confused.

"It's so stupid! They always talk about who they like or don't like." A female voice explained. "But Tseng is different."

We turned to face the voice and watched as Elena walked past us, gazing intently at her PHS, tapping buttons every so often. So intently was she focusing on her phone, that she walked into me. Finally she looked up, and saw my face, peering down at her.

"Boo!" I shouted.

"Ah!" Elena shrieked, running towards her male counterparts. "Oh no! They're here! They're really here!"

"I'm hurt. Never before has someone screamed in my face, at my face." I called after her.

The male Turks turned and looked at us, Reno smirking.

"Hmm... Then it's time..." Reno smirked. "Rude... Don't go easy on them even though they're girls."

"...Don't worry, I'll do my job." Rude grunted.

"Then, we're counting on you." Elena told them, moving towards the reactor. "I'll report to Tseng!"

"Spike, take the girls and stop her." Cloud ordered me.

Should I be offended that he's making me go with the girls?

"Will do." I nodded, charging after the blond Turk.

I heard Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie following after me. I almost caught up with the Turk when a fist connected with my temple, sending me to the ground. Looking up, I noted that Elena had slid to a halt, and standing on either side of her were another two Turks that I was familiar with.

"Well, well. Would you look at that." Tia smirked, gazing down at me. "And here I was thinking that I wasn't going to get a shot at you."

"Ah. Shit." I cursed, getting to my feet.

Damnit. I suppose I should be thankful that the girls are with me. Last time I took on three Turks at once, I was kinda killed via electricity.

Not something I wish to repeat.

Cel stood, glaring at me, his electric rod at his side, and didn't say a word to me, but his eyes told me that he wanted a piece of me. Preferably my head. Tia looked... exactly as Jade had described her current attitude as: Like she wanted to rip my balls off. Only she also looked like she wanted to force feed them back to me. It still equals nasty things for me.

Elena looked the most normal out of them. Matter of fact, she's the only one I haven't pissed off in some way. Better try to avoid doing so then. Two pissed off Turks is more than enough for the likes of me.

Getting to my feet, the girls lined up besides me, readying themselves for a battle. Tia reacted by sliding into a martial arts posture. Copying her colleges example, Elena also readied herself for a fight, by pulling out her pistol and pointing it at us. Cel was the only one who looked relaxed.

Tia's glare started to make me feel uncomfortable. I wonder whether she'll just accept an apology and leave me be....

"I'm going to fucking castrate you for what you did to me!" Tia growled.

Maybe not then.

_'I think it's safe to say she's pissed.'_ Spike whispered in my ear. "_'Might I suggest a swift retreat?'_

_Not happening._ I answered. _She'll just catch up._

Aeris looked at my, eyebrow raised.

"What did you do to her?" She asked.

"Threw her out with the trash." I replied, smirking.

Elena and Cel sniggered, obviously only just having heard this piece of news.

"How did that happen?" Cel smirked.

"Bastard snuck up on me using a cardboard box." Tia growled.

"Would this be the same box you drop kicked back in the alley? The **empty** one?" Cel asked, still smirking.

"That was after she chased it down a street, swearing." I felt obligated to point out with a snigger.

Elena and Cel burst out laughing, much to Tia's annoyance.

"What, you have some kind of phobia of boxes?" Elena managed to say.

"To all Cardboard boxes of the world I present this warning: Tia Mataha will use her awesome martial arts to vanquish you and your kind from this world..." Cel, showing that he actually has a sense of humour, called out.

"**ALL OF YOU CAN SHUT UP!"** Tia roared.

Everyone took a step away from her, all looking very, very scared. Scratch that, we were all terrified of her.

"Did..." Elena began, eyes wide. "Did she just grow fangs?"

"You saw that too?" Yuffie asked, staring at Tia in fear.

"Yes, she did." Tifa squeaked.

Tia glared at us all in turn before stomping up to me and delivering a swift kick. Unfortunately, her aim was too good, and I went down, with a squeak. Even Cel looked sympathetic.

"There go any hopes that I'd still be able to have kids some day." I cursed, voice way to high pitched.

Why does every female in the world seem to want to hurt me in my special place, at least once? Yuffie tried, Aeris succeeded, and now Tia just managed it as well.

I'd hoped that the X-Potion we'd won from our gambling would go to a wound more dignified than this. This is just embarrassing. First Hi-Potion we ever got went to the same cause. Is this going to happen again, when we get an Elixir and again when we get a Megalixir?

I seriously hope not.

Once the pain was gone (X-Potions seemed to take away phantom pains along with the injury itself, thankfully), I stood up, pulling out my gunblade.

"I am going to kill you. Painfully." I snarled.

Elena backpedaled slightly, looking rather nervous.

"Erm, Tia." She began. "I don't think you should have pissed the lizard-man off..."

"Lizard-boy." The veteran Turk corrected the blond. "He's just a kid."

"A kid that you called cute not too long ago." Cel pointed out.

"Well maybe if he hadn't gone and made an enemy out of me...!"

"And what would you have done if you'd caught me in Junon?" I hissed. "Seeing as the first and only time we'd met prior was when you took me out, along with Red and Tifa."

The violet eyed Turk paused there, before shrugging.

"Fair point. I'm still going to rip your balls off though."

Before any more more could be said, I charged Tia, giving a loud war-cry. I obviously took the Turks by surprise, because they didn't react in time to prevent me from rugby tackling Tia to the ground. Before I could do much to her though, she managed to throw me off of herself, and leapt to her feet. I scrambled back to my feet myself, and grabbed Talon from where I'd dropped it in time to block Cel's wild swing.

I made a gap between myself and the male Turk, by kicking him in the stomach, sending him reeling back. Before he could react further, Aeris' pole slammed into the side of his head, catching him by surprise. Cursing, he turned to face the Ancient, readying his rod, ignoring me.

I took the moment to analyse the scene. Elena was on the floor, trying to find her pistol, while nursing her hand. Yuffie stood a ways away from her, looking smug. Tifa and Tia (wow, now that I think about it, their names have a difference of one letter) were engaged in a rematch of their fight from back in the Mythril Mines. Aeris was keeping Cel just far enough away from herself that her couldn't use his rod, swinging her staff in such a way that if he tried getting closer, he'd risk being knocked out.

Remembering what happened to Tifa the last time she fought with Tia, I rushed to aid her. Tia seemed to sense me coming though. Leaping to the side, she pivoted her body around and kicked me in the back, making me stumble forwards, and into Tifa, knocking us both to the ground. Looking up, my eyes widened, and I rolled out of the way of her heel, which slammed into the ground where I had been just a second ago. Tia cursed, then stumbled forwards as Tifa, already on her feet, slammed her elbow into the back of the Turk's head.

The violet eyed Turk leapt forwards, in a way that made it look like she was diving to the ground, but her hands connected with the ground first, and acted like springs, bending as the rest of her body tried to catch up, before straitening themselves, launching her back the way she came from, her feet connecting with Tifa's chin. The crack that sounded out told me that she'd just broken Tifa's jaw. The martial artist stumbled back, hands over her jaw, groaning.

Yuffie, noticing that me and Tifa were in trouble threw a kunai at the Turk. Tia, without paying attention, caught the knife and threw it at me in turn. I swore as the blade penetrated my flesh. Thankfully it hadn't damaged any vital organs, but damn that hurt. Yanking the blade out of my body, yelling in pain while doing so, I tossed it aside, and swore as the Turk turned a couple of Yuffie's smaller shuriken against me as well. Ok, that's one in my thigh, and one in my stomach. Once I'd removed them from my person, I was forced to think about other things as Cel finally found a way past Aeris' defence and just electrified her **metal **pole, killing the Cetra.

While Yuffie searched her pack for a Phoenix Down, I tried to defend myself against the male Turk, gunblade protected against such an attack through the wrappings around the handle, which were in turn covered with leather. Still, my gunblade couldn't use the same type of defence that Aeris had, simply because it wasn't a pole. Wasn't whippy enough or some such... This meant that Cel could, potentially, have an easier time getting to me then Aeris, (how was he to know that her pole wasn't protected against electricity without being able to see where her hands were?). I didn't have to worry about him though, since Tifa, recovering from the shock of having her jaw broken, ran up to Cel and did a somersault, her foot connecting with his jaw, though his jaw didn't follow the example set by hers and break.

Aeris picked herself up, having recovered from her death with thanks to a Phoenix Down from Yuffie, and had moved to replace the ninja in preventing Elena from being able to do excessive amounts of damage. Really, the only two who have done any damage are Cel and Tia.

Yuffie threw herself at the violet eyed Turk, foot swinging around. Tia grabbed the brat's foot and used her own momentum against her to throw her at me. I cursed, watching this unfold and could only brace myself as Yuffie slammed into me.

Jumping back to my feet, I charged Tia again, ducking under her foot as she tried to kick me, and slammed into her. I didn't stop my forwards motion however, and kept going until I slammed Tia, back first, into a tree. The Turk groaned, and I took the opportunity to slam my shoulder into her stomach several times, before she managed to hook her foot around my own and sent me toppling over. Tia landed on top of me.

"Always knew I'd be on top." She smirked, before head butting me.

While I was too dazed to stop her, she got up and charged at Yuffie, who only managed a yelp before she was knocked to the ground.

Damn. Tia is like a freaking juggernaut. Not even Cel is doing as much damage as her. Well, then again he did kill Aeris, but that was more fluke than anything. Elena hasn't done jack all this entire fight.

By the time my body had landed, bullet through the neck, I was eating those words.

Damnit! She shot me. Scratch that, she killed me.

Bitch.

Tia seemed to hesitate, seeing me dead, but at the sight of Tifa pulling out a Phoenix Down, she continued working with Cel in trying to catch Yuffie, who was constantly dancing out of their reach. Elena pointed her pistol towards the ninja, but Aeris slammed her pole against Elena's wrist, forcing her to drop the weapon again. Seemingly fed up with being useless, she tried to move in again the Cetra in unarmed combat, but considering the fact that Aeris was armed, that was going to be a difficult task.

I picked myself off the floor, cursing the feeling of my heart starting after a half minute of not pumping. Resurrection is painful. And now the phantom pains are giving me a sore throat.

Yuffie chose that moment to throw everything she had that was throw-able at Tia, who caught each and every one of them.

And threw them at me.

"Stop giving her ammunition!" I yelled out, before my heart was pierced by a kunai, killing me for the second time in two minutes.

Yuffie stared at my corpse, unaware that I (as my ghost form as I call it when I'm like this) was swearing my head off at her.

Course, that was interrupted by Aeris' Phoenix Down reviving me. Damnit, I really hope Phoenix Downs aren't addictive, otherwise I'll be hooked on them by the end of the day.

Once back on my feet, the Turks lined themselves up, looking at us. Then, as if by some unspoken signal...

Cel checked his watch, while Tia adjusted her tie and Elena brushed herself off, and all three turned and walked away.

"See ya later." Tia waved.

Cursing, I moved to follow, but seeing as the Phoenix Down had only healed the killing wound, (and pushing out the kunai that had been involved in said wound) I was still acting as a pincushion for most of Yuffie's equipment. That slowed me down a bit. As in, I nearly fainted.

Muttering some words that was unbecoming of the Princess of Wutai, Yuffie crouched down besides me and started to help remove her gear.

"Why'd they run?" Yuffie asked, as she pulled a Kunai out of my arm.

"They were tiring." Tifa answered. "Elena was the only one who wasn't tired, and she was nearly useless that fight. We also had the advantage of numbers."

"I was still killed twice!" I complained. "That hurt."

"Sorry." Yuffie apologised. "I didn't realize she was throwing them at you."

"You didn't find it suspicious that she took the effort to catch and throw everything away? She could have spent less effort just **dodging**!"

"Excuse me for not taking the time to watch her every move. At the time, I was just a tad more concerned with the fact that she was trying to turn me into a punch-bag!

I sighed, yanking a shuriken from my shin.

"I knew I'd regret pissing her off." I mumbled.

"Regret pissing who off?" Cloud's voice asked.

I looked up, spotting the rest of the male members of AVALANCHE walking up to us. When Cloud spotted me, his eyes widened.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

"A trio of Turks, one of whom went for me, me and more me." I answered, sourly, pulling another Shuriken from my body.

"Aren't you in pain?" Someone asked me.

I snarled, muttering several choice words under my breath before answering.

"Yes, I fecking well am in pain!" I hissed. "Acting as a pin-cushion to all these sharp objects is not my idea of a massage."

Once the last of the ninja weapons was pulled out from where it had embedded itself in my body, I felt a curative spell wash over me, sealing the wounds, and removing most of the phantom pains. A Curaga level spell, from Aeris.

Thankful, I picked myself up, what little phantom pains the Curaga hadn't diminished causing me to groan from the act. A quick once over revealed that the majority of my clothing was ruined. My coat, miraculously, came out of the fight unscratched, but my jeans and t-shirt were torn to shreds. My jeans might be salvageable, but my t-shirt is now non-existent, save for a couple of strips of bloody cloth.

Figures.

* * *

It was decided that Cloud, myself and Tifa would investigate the reactor ruin, seeing as the Turks, both groups, had retreated in the general direction of the looming tower. Everyone else would wait for us at Gongaga.

The reactor was a silent place, no sign of the usual machinery. It appeared that everything salvageable had been stripped from this place long ago, leaving this empty husk behind, filled with trash, trash and more trash.

Well, the place is good for something, it seems. It makes a convenient scrap yard.

After roughly half an hour of looking, Cloud, Tifa and myself were ready to call it quits. There was little here, and even less that was actually useful. But as we turned to leave, we heard the tell-tale sound of a Shinra helicopter approaching. Figuring that it was just flying past, we continued to move towards the exit, but were forced to re-evaluate our thoughts on that when the helicopter landed directly in front of the only exit.

I recognised the man in the dark suit that exited almost immediately.

"Tseng." I muttered.

He was accompanied by a blond in a red dress... scratch that, a blond in a really **slutty** red dress.

"Scarlet of Weapons Development." Cloud mused, aloud. "What's she doing here?"

"If her dress sense is anything to go by, I really don't want to know." I muttered, hand drifting towards my gunblade.

"Let's not attract attention to ourselves if we can help it." Cloud grunted, preventing me from actually pulling the blade out of its sheath. "We're still worn out from fighting the other Turks, and Tseng wasn't in either fight."

I nodded, ducking behind some rubble before either Tseng or Scarlet could look in our direction.

Tseng stood to the side, looking annoyed, and a little bored, while Scarlet pried open a hatch that anyone else would have missed and peered inside.

"Hmph! This isn't any good either." She declared after a while, shaking her head in frustration. "You only get junky materia from junky reactors. This reactor's a failure. What I'm looking for is big, large, huge materia. You seen any?"

With a sigh, Tseng turned to look at her.

"No I haven't seen it. I'll get on it right away." He said, sounding like he was merely humouring her.

Scarlet must not have noticed his tone of voice, because she carried on talking.

"With Hojo gone, the Weapon Development's been getting a bigger budget." She felt the need to mention.

"I envy them." Tseng grunted.

"But, even if we make the perfect weapon, could that stupid Heidegger even use it?" Scarlet carried on.

Her Turk escort remained silent, and this seemed to attract Scarlet's attention.

"Oh... sorry! I forgot Heidegger was your boss!" She laughed.

Tseng continued to ignore the Head of Weapons Development. Scarlet seemed to lose any interest in him and gave the reactor another look before shaking her head.

"Let's go." She finally ordered.

Tseng seemed to sigh in relief, before following the woman back to the helicopter. After several minutes, the helicopter took off and flew back the way it came.

Now that the coast was clear, Cloud, Tifa and myself left our hiding spot.

"Big, large, huge materia? An ultimate weapon? The perfect weapon? Just what are the Shinra up to...?" Cloud mused to himself, brow creased in thought.

"Rufus probably wants to use whatever this ultimate weapon is on me." I pointed out, remembering Jade's warning that Rufus wanted to chain me to the end of the Junon Cannon and fire.

"He'd probably use you as the test, but I doubt he wants an ultimate weapon to use it exclusively on you." Cloud returned.

"Good point."

Cloud turned to where Scarlet and Tseng had been standing, and, upon noticing the still open hatch, made his way forwards, and peered inside himself. Something must have caught his eye, because he reached in and pulled something out.

"Titan Materia." He declared, after identifying the orb that he now held in his hand.

"And that's not a big enough materia for Scarlet?" I asked, sarcastically.

"Apparently not."

Shaking my head, I spared a quick look at the red materia in Cloud's hand before deciding that a different member of AVALANCHE would be better off with it. This would be our fourth or fifth one, assuming that the others were being collected even without me being there.

Well, that's everything of interest in this derelict. Not even the friendly folk at Shinra seem to care, so I believe it's time to actually go to Gongaga. This thought was shared by my companions, and as such, we departed.

We met up with the rest of the team and started hiking it to the town.

On entering Gongaga, the first thing we could see, was a graveyard, various people kneeling before the graves of their lost loved ones. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be such a big deal, plenty of towns and villages have their own graveyard. But no, what made this graveyard stand out was both the size of it, and the fact that most of the stones looked newish... at most a few years old. A large number of people died at roughly the same time.

The ruined Mako Reactor, visible in the background, told a clear story about those buried in the graveyard.

Maybe this was why Shinra left Gongaga alone, while Coral was burnt to the ground. Coral didn't actually suffer with the destruction of their Mako Reactor, where Gongaga, from the looks of it, lost virtually everything, leaving Shinra no need to punish the town. There was nothing left **to** punish.

The town itself had clearly suffered;Gongaga itself couldn't even be classed as a village anymore, it was little more than a hamlet now, just a small collection of homes and little, if anything, else.

"Let's take a look around." Cloud suggested, though he didn't sound as enthusiastic about it now.

Clearly he didn't think Sephiroth would spent any time in a backwater place such as this.

Look around we did. Myself, Tifa and Cloud went one way, everyone else went the other.

After a whole quarter of an hour, we had explored all that was left of Gongaga and even spoken to the majority of the residents, who all told a similar tale of how nearly the entire village was wiped out in the Mako Reactor's meltdown.

And was on that note we found ourselves being let into the last home on the agenda. The inside was cosy looking, if a little spartan, though with the state of the village, I suppose that was to be expected. No village, no economy, no unnecessary luxuries. The owners were an aged couple, worry lines etched permanently onto their faces.

The male stepped forwards and spoke up.

"You travellers?" He asked, before doing a double take at Cloud. "Hey, wait, that glare in your eye... You in SOLDIER?"

Huh, seems even people this far out from Shinra and SOLDIER know about the Mako Eyes of SOLDIER.

On hearing the question, the wife stepped forwards, examining Cloud, who looked uncomfortable at the attention.

"Oh, you're right!" She exclaimed. "Do you know anything about our son?"

"His name is Zack." The husband mentioned.

At the name, I was forced to shut my eyes as a wave of images and sounds came unbidden into my mind. At first, I thought it was like the flashes of the various other people in a situation similar to mine, but no, this was only one person. It felt more like a flashback than anything.

"It's been close to ten years since he left for the city, saying he didn't want to live in the country..." The wife recounted.

"He left saying he was going to join SOLDIER." The husband added.

Cloud hesitated, frowning, as he searched his memories for a SOLDIER named Zack.

"I don't know." He grunted at last.

Tifa glanced at Cloud, (or was it the Buster Sword on his back?) before he eyes widened in realization.

"Zack..." She murmured, almost inaudiably.

Evidently the husband had sharper hearing than I thought he'd have, because he heard Tifa and turned to face her instantly.

"Young lady, you know him?" He asked, sounding almost desperate.

"I remember he wrote to us 6 or 7 years ago, saying that he had a girlfriend." The wife mentioned. "Could that have been you?"

Everyone turned to face Tifa, who shook her head, almost frantically.

"No, it wasn't." She said, once she regained the use of her voice.

And with that said, the martial artist turned and left the building.

"Tifa, what happened?" Cloud asked, confused.

"She'd have still been in Nibelheim 6 years ago, if memory serves." I spoke up.

Cloud paused, before nodding as he realized the truth of my words. He turned to follow Tifa out the building but was stopped by the sound of my voice.

"This Zack, did he have black, spiky hair and a cheerful attitude?" I asked the couple, piecing together the images from my supposed 'flashback'.

The wife looked surprised before nodding.

"Yes. In fact, he once mentioned in one of his letters that his mentor kept referring to him as a puppy. Zack the Puppy. You knew him?"

"Only in passing." I said. "We crossed paths a while back. He was in a hurry and didn't stick around to chat, though I got the impression that he was headed here."

The news seemed to depress them, as clearly, he had never made it here. Now I felt guilty.

"Sorry." I felt the need to apologise.

The apology was waved off with a remark that I had nothing to be sorry for.

At that, me and Cloud left, leaving the couple be. Cloud instantly moved to where Tifa was stood, deep in thought.

"Zack..." She mumbled.

"Do you know him?" Cloud asked.

"No." She answered, far to quickly.

"Your face tells me differently." He remarked, arms crossed.

"I told you, I don't!" She snapped in response.

"Alright." Cloud waved his hands as if to ward off her decidedly dangerous ire.

Tifa was silent for a couple of seconds before turning to look at Cloud.

"That sounds just like you though, leaving town and saying 'I'm joining SOLDIER!"

"There were a lot of guys like that back then." Cloud answered.

"You must really be something, making it in SOLDIER in a group like that."

Another pause.

"I really respect you." Tifa finally settled on saying.

Cloud scratched the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed at the statement.

"I just got lucky." He shrugged.

"Don't be so humble." Tifa smiled. "Cloud, thanks for caring."

Yet another pause, and by this point I was feeling awkward for being in the vicinity of this conversation.

"I'm going to round up everybody." Cloud said at last. "We'll meet back at the buggy and plan our next move."

"So far, it's felt like Sephiroth has been one step ahead of us the entire time. And now we've lost the trail." I pointed out.

"That's why we'll need to brainstorm the next move. See if we can figure out where he'll go." Cloud told me, before moving off in search off the others.

Shrugging, I examined the state that I was in and cursed. Clothes all torn up and covered in my own blood. Yeah, no wonder the residents of Gongaga seemed to try and avoid me.

This tells me that I need a bath. And lucky me, there is a public bath on the other side of the village, about the only public service this place has to offer.

Shops? Who needs shops when everyone is just selling their personal possessions. Inn? Some guy who happens to have a spare room and is willing to rent it out for cash.

Want a bath in Gongaga? Well, the only bath for miles is the public one.

Jeez, these guys really have it bad.

* * *

After we returned from Gongaga, everyone sat down in the back of the buggy in order to plan out our next move. Already, I felt much better, thanks to my bath. At least they'd had hot water, I don't even want to know what would have happened if they only had cold water.

As I got into the back of the buggy, everyone gave me odd looks at my current lack of clothing, but otherwise ignored me. I took a seat and grabbed what remained of my jeans, along with the sewing kit I'd been given back in Kalm.

Cloud looked at each of us in turn, before nodding.

"Gongaga turned out to be a dead end. We now have no clue as to where Sephiroth could be going." He declared.

"No shit." I snorted, threading the needle through the denim of my jeans.

Cloud shot me a look before continuing.

"As such, we now need to plan where what we'll do next. I don't know the geography too well, so Barret, Yuffie, are there any places of interest nearby?"

"I Think we should head west." Red spoke up, interrupting Yuffie who had opened her mouth to say something.

"I'm inclined to agree with him there." I commented.

Cloud's brow furrowed as he tried to consider what could lie to the west.

"Why?" Aeris asked, when Cloud remained silent.

"Our home is to the west." Red said. "I'd like to go there."

"Your home?"

"We come from Cosmo Canyon." I informed everyone.

Barret looked up at the last sentence and grinned.

"Cosmo Canyon? Always wanted ta visit that place in a while..."

Cloud didn't seem to approve of the idea, judging from his frown.

"Cosmo Canyon holds one of the largest libraries in the world. The amount of knowledge stored within the libraries could shed some clue towards the Promised Land." Red revealed. "And possibly the significance to Sephiroth and his plans."

Now that seemed to sway Cloud towards the idea.

"And if nothing else, it's the most significant centre of civilisation between here and Rocket Town." I added. "I never thought Sephiroth would bother with the smaller settlements, other than to pass through, but if he were to stop anywhere, it would likely be there."

"And he may have an interest in the libraries himself."

"Alright, we'll start heading to Cosmo Canyon then." Cloud declared.

"Erm, Cloud?" Yuffie raised her hand.

Cloud exhaled a long suffering sigh and turned to look at her.

"Yes, Yuffie?" He asked.

"I'm feeling kinda uncomfortable with him, just sitting there like that." Yuffie told the blond, jabbing her thumb in my direction.

"Oi, did no one ever tell you it's rude to point?" I snapped, pushing the needle through the fabric once again.

"I've been meaning to ask about that." Tifa confessed.

"Same." Cloud frowned. "Spike, why **are** you sitting there in your boxers?"

"Doesn't that fall under the category of sexual harassment?" Yuffie continued.

"I'm not doing anything to you, so no, it does not class as sexual harassment." I glared at her. "And the reason I'm wearing nothing but my boxers, is because I'm trying to repair my clothing; which was torn, courtesy of Yuffie's kunai and shuriken. I have no plans of stabbing myself with a needle just because I was wearing the clothes I'm sewing up."

Only thing that wasn't damaged, not including my boxers, was my coat, which I'm thankful for. That coat did cost me a small fortune.

"And so you decide to attend a planning session in your underwear?" Cait sniggered. "Well, it does make sense."

I nod at the robotic cat's statement.

"It does. Seeing as planning involves us sitting here and **planning**, which requires minimal, if any movement. So there is no better time to sew my clothing. Unless you're saying that I should have walked around town in my boxers, while I did my repairs?"

Cloud sighed and turned to Yuffie.

"Why were your weapons responsible for the tearing to his clothing?" He asked, sounding annoyed.

"Hey, don't go trying to pin this one on me. It was that Tia woman. Everything I threw at her, she just used at us in return." Yuffie defended herself.

"And yet Spike's the only one who's clothes are badly torn enough to warrant him sewing them together."

"She has it in for me." I confessed. "She took it personally that I threw her in a dumpster back in Junon."

"Besides which, shouldn't he have spare clothes?" Yuffie asked.

There was silence from everyone else.

"Don't tell me that I'm the only one..."

"You are." Aeris responded.

"If our clothing is torn too badly, we just replace it." Tifa admitted.

"How do you keep your clothes from stinking up a storm?" The brat asked, appalled.

"Launderettes in towns, springs, rivers. We wash them when we get a chance." Cloud grunted. "Until recently, storage was a big issue for us, and we didn't have space for spare clothing."

Yuffie sighed.

"You know it's bad when I realize that that is the truth, and not just a lame excuse." She moaned.

"Don't look at me." I smirked. "Until I get **these** clothes wearable again, I can't go and buy myself any spares. I already need to replace my t-shirt; your shuriken tore it beyond repair."

"Besides which, Gongaga had no clothing stores, and none of the residents were your size, so you'll have to wait until we get to Cosmo Canyon before you can replace your clothing, Spike." Aeris informed me.

I paused in my sewing, gaping at her.

"You're joking." I stated flatly.

"No, I'm not."

"...Shit."

Damn, I'm going to have to go bare-chested for a while. Well, at least we'll be in the buggy the entire time...

"I'm driving!" I declared, climbing over the barrier between me and the front seats, quicker then the rest of AVALANCHE could blink.

"Can't you stop him?" Someone asked Cloud, who sighed.

"He's the one with the key, and he's very possessive of it."

If he wanted to say anything else, it was stopped as I started to rev the engine, before releasing the handbrakes, sending the tank shooting forwards.

Had I taken the time to glance at the rear-view mirror, I'd have spotted a figure wearing a dark robe standing where the buggy had just been parked, watching as the vehicle sped off.

* * *

AN:

::Cries at the horrifyingly short chapter for all the time it took::

Seriously ashamed of myself right now. No joke.

It looks even shorter uploaded on ... drat it all...

Right, first off, a special thank you to MegaKiraraLover, who wrote me a one-shot of Spike in Kingdom Hearts 2. The fic is in the reviews, just scroll down or go to next page or whatever to find it. I'll put it on my profile in a day or two. Need to consider whether to leave it on profile or actually go to the trouble of creating a new fic made entirely of one-shots based on the IWGH2-verse and what-ifs... One such example being a 'what-if Spike hadn't gone into FFVII but the Sega Megadrive/Genesis game 'The Lion King'... or 'what did the Turks talk about while dragging Spike's scaly carcass to Hojo's lab?'

But whatever. I'm kinda ranting now. And you're all probably still so angry about the massively long delay that you don't care for my words.

And as a side note, a question given by a reviewer about Spike's anatomy prompted me to put a link to of a picture of Spike on my bio. It ain't perfect, the tail is meant to be slightly longer, and he's more of a grass green in colour, but it's as close as a Morrowind recreation can get.


	23. Into the Cosmos

Make sure you read the Author's note at the bottom of the page after you've read the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 22: Into the Cosmos

My fun was forced to a complete halt when a loud crack could be heard, and the buggy started to lose speed.

I came to the conclusion that the loud crack was bad, and pulled the key out of the ignition, pulled up the handbrake, and promptly got out of the vehicle. My first order of business, to pull up the hood and take a look at the engine.

If a life-time of movies has taught me anything, it's that a car or some such vehicle always stops because of an engine problem. So, you just pop open the hood and take a peek inside, where the problem will be immediately clear, and the solution was to just tinker around.

That was the plan, but on opening the hood, I found a massive great engine staring back at me, and no clear sign of what was wrong. The fact that I have no mechanical skills wasn't helping, much to my annoyance.

I am beginning to suspect that a life-time of movies have lied to me.

After roughly ten minutes, everyone else was getting impatient, and I had Barret at my side as we tried to figure out what was wrong.

Barret might have been more orientated towards the labour part of coal mining back in the day, but a basic understanding of the mechanical arts was a requirement to work in the mines, according to Barret, which was why he was the one giving me a helping hand.

Cait was taking leave of his over-sized moogle and was perched on the edge of the hood, offering advice that told us that he was he slouch in the mechanical arts himself, though the cat did admit that he knew more about robotic mechanics than vehicle mechanics, but he still had **some** knowledge that could help out.

Despite the three of us mumbling, cursing and glaring at the engine, we could find no problem with the engine. Still, we carried on, even going so far as to discuss whether it would be a good idea to take the whole engine out in order to look at it properly.

The rest of AVALANCHE shared a collective groan at the idea, figuring that doing so would delay us even longer.

"What does this connect to?" I asked, pointing at what I was referring to.

Cait spared it a glance.

"That's the wheels. Gives the buggy its acceleration."

"I thought dat was what connected to th' wheels?" Barret pointed at a different part.

"That's what I thought." I admitted.

"Rear wheels then." Cait amended, his accent thickening slightly in embarrassment. "'Tis a four wheel drive."

"No, **that** was the rear wheel drive." I pointed at yet another part.

Both Cait and Barret looked at what I was pointing at, and then what I'd been pointing at before.

"Middle wheel drive?" Barret asked, confused.

"No... **that** was middle wheels..." I grunted, gesturing wildly.

The other two stared at the part and scratched their heads.

"The other middle wheels then."

Blinking, I leant sidewards to check the number of wheels on the buggy.

"I like this thing and all, but isn't eight-wheel drive a little over-kill?" I asked, shaking my head. "Feels like they made this thing as complicated as possible."

"Probably so no rival company could reverse engineer the engine." Cait supplied. "Who'd want ta try when just fixing the drat thing is enough to give even **me** a headache."

"What company designed this thing?" I asked. "I'd like to give them a piece of my mind."

"Mozda." Cait answered, examining the company badge on the front.

I turned to stare at Cait, eyebrow ridge raised.

"Mozda?"

"Aye. Supposedly they were once called Marsda, but then Mazda threatened to sue, so they changed to Mozda."

"Right... and this has to do with our current problem... how?"

"It doesn't. I just thought it an interesting bit of trivia."

A thump to the side had me looking away from the engine at Yuffie, who was trying to alleviate some of her boredom by doing cartwheels. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been going, and as such had collided with the side of the buggy. She was now on the floor, nursing the top of her head.

"Oi. Why don't you make yourself useful?" I called out to her.

"I don't know the first thing about cars other than that they make me sick." She replied. "Seriously, how you can even drive that thing when you suffer motion sickness yourself is beyond me."

I shrugged to myself and returned to the task at hand. I was about to enquire about the purpose of yet another part of the engine when a shriek from the ninja forced my attention to return to her.

"You men and your so-called knowledge of the 'mechanical arts'!" She shrieked. "All that tinkering and you couldn't even figure out that the problem wasn't the engine, it was the axles!"

"What?" I asked, bemused, before crouching down to look under the vehicle, to see what she meant.

Ah, ok, I see what she meant. All four axles had snapped, leaving us with a working engine, inside a not so perfect chassis.

"Shit." I cursed softly.

Barret wasn't so quiet about it though.

"Shit!" He bellowed.

An engine problem had the potential to be fixed, if we knew what was wrong with the engine. Cracked axles however, were another story. To fix cracked axles, we need replacement axles, which you couldn't carry around like you could spare tires.

Oh, and you need a mechanic and his workshop...

Oh yeah, we're screwed.

"Spike, your driving destroyed our buggy!" Yuffie felt the need to scream, right in my ear.

"Gah!" I cried out, jumping away from the banshee that was Yuffie.

It took several seconds for the ringing in my ear to stop and for me to register just what she had accused me of.

"Hey, don't go pinning this on me!" I yelled. "Have you seen that suspension? This thing is supposed to be able to take much worse than what I've done!"

"I have a hard time believing that! All that air time, and those barrel rolls clearly broke our ride!"

"Clearly, you are delusional!"

"You're the delusional one!"

"Says the one who knows nothing of cars!"

"And what do you know of cars?"

"All the important things, like, how to drive!"

"What you do isn't driving, it's trying to commit suicide!"

I snorted at her last sentence.

"I got us to Gongaga!"

"Don't remind me, I still have the bruises from your parking skills!"

By this point, Yuffie and myself were shouting in each other's faces. Aeris, ever the voice of peace, took it upon herself to get between us and, with a surprising amount of strength, push us apart.

"Break it up." She commanded.

Neither me nor Yuffie paid her any heed, instead deciding to shout around this new obstacle. Aeris, clearly annoyed with being ignored, did what was always considered impossible. She rose her voice.

"BE QUIET!"

At the yell, both myself and the brat finally shut up, and decided it was time to stare in shock at Aeris, who took the moment of peace to calmly compose herself.

Even the wildlife had gone silent at Aeris' yelled command.

"Now, stay quiet." She ordered us, voice firm.

We nodded dumbly.

"Spike, you're the one who took the time to download a sat-nav to your PHS, how far are we from Cosmo Canyon?"

Silently, I took my phone from my pocket and scrolled down the list of programs. Finding my target, I tapped the button and watched as a GPS map appeared on the screen, showing where I was, and where Cosmo Canyon was.

"It's roughly half an hours hike, longer, if we bump into any monsters." I said at last.

Nodding, Aeris turned to Red, though when she spoke, it was just as much to me as it was to Red.

"Are there any trained mechanics at Cosmo Canyon?" She asked.

I searched through what little I could 'remember' about Cosmo Canyon, and found myself nodding, while it was Red who gave the verbal affirmative.

"Cosmo Canyon has long been a rest stop for travellers, and they often need supplies or help with repairs." Red informed everyone.

"And they'll fix up the buggy no sweat." I finished, realizing her train of thought.

Aeris clapped her hands together and gave the group a smile.

"Well then, a thirty minute is nothing to complain about. We'll just hike to Cosmo Canyon and they repair the buggy while we stay there."

Ok, that seems very sensible. I won't pretend to like it, since it means leaving my precious buggy behind, but it also means that the buggy will, in theory, be repaired by the time I next see it.

In theory...

* * *

Ok, the hike was slightly longer than half an hour... I hadn't taken into account how sodding steep the slope was, and how hot it was. And a group is only as fast as the slowest person and all that. So...

Yeah, the trip took a full hour. Really, it wasn't my fault. I can't sweat or even get bothered by the heat, so I could continue at a steady pace all the way. Hey, the no sweating **does** have a use other than never needing to use deodorant, for no sweat means no sweaty armpits, means no body odour... What was my original point again?

Well, at any rate, you knew you were nearly there, when rather than fighting against a natural hill, you were simply climbing stairs. Stairs which felt overly familiar from some reason. Must be more of those so-called memories. Damnit, they're trying to take over my life.

The guard at the top of the stairs was a short fellow with curly blond hair and a sharp chin; and he looked especially familiar. In his hand was a spear.

Two sets of conflicting memories intruded upon me. One from home, my real home, Earth, the real world, whatever you wanted to call it; the other one of these false memories. Both sets had one thing in common: this geezer in front of me.

I don't like him, and he sure as hell don't like me.

Before anything could be said, Red bounded up the remaining steps, coming to the front of the group.

"I am home!" He declared, sounding happy about the fact. Can't rightly blame him. "It is I , Nanaki!"

"Hey, Nanaki!" The guard gaped in shock. "You're safe! Come on, and say hello to Bugenhagen!"

As Red pushed past and into Cosmo Canyon proper, Cloud scratched his head, in confusion.

"...Nanaki?" He asked at last.

"Well you don't think 'Red' is his real name, do you?" I responded, trying to push my way to the front myself.

Somewhere at the back of the group, Barret seemed to cheer.

"Wooooooooo! I always wanted to come here!"

Shaking his head in amusement, the guard looked at Cloud.

"Welcome to Cosmo Canyon. Are you familiar with this land?"

Cloud opened his mouth, but I beat him to it.

"Yes." I grunted, pushing past the guard.

The guard grunted as he was forcibly shoved aside, but he regained his bearings quickly and turned on me, his grip on his spear tightening.

"Oi, you can't just enter like that..." he snapped.

"Try and stop me Rob, or have you forgotten that I live here?" I hissed, rounding on him.

Rob's eyes widened slightly, before he seemed to calm down, though he was still glaring.

"Oh, it's you." His said, voice flat. "I thought you'd gone for good."

"Thought, or hoped?" I asked, sarcastically.

Shaking my head, I turned away from the guard and moved towards the Cosmo Candle, letting the memories implant themselves in my mind. A lifetime of memories, memories which weren't mine, yet were. Memories like sitting at the Cosmo Candle, night after night, with only Red for company.

Sadly, my life here was comparable to my life back home, only here, I didn't have a family, just two people who raised me.

Jeez, couldn't Jade have made my back story here a little less depressing? I mean, my family is two guys that pretty much adopted me, so that's a significantly smaller family, and here, I have much less in the way of friends.

Scratch that, I had no friends other than Red.

No offence to Red, and his skills as a friend, but that is just depressing. Add that he's been a captive of the Shinra for some time, there was a period where I had pretty much nothing.

Now I'm really depressed.

"Hey, you missed this place?" Red asked, coming up behind me.

I shook my head in a negative.

"I missed certain people. Adrian, Xenor, Bugenhagen, and you." I answered. "I never had much here. When you disappeared, the place seemed a lot less friendly."

"You're going to continue travelling with Cloud, aren't you?"

I nodded.

"You plan on staying." I didn't ask, I didn't even need to have memories of the game to know that he didn't plan to continue journeying with us.

Red nodded.

"Will you be visiting them?"

I didn't need to ask who he was referring to, it was fairly obvious.

"Yeah." I answered.

My feet seemed to guide themselves, like I was travelling a path I'd travelled often. I eventually came to a stop at what my memories told me was my home, where I'd spent my entire life before leaving Cosmo Canyon.

I felt strangely nervous.

I was about to meet the two who were the closest people I had to family in this world, for what I knew was the first time, but my memories told me that I'd known them as long as I could remember.

It didn't help that I had left for Midgar against Adrian's wishes. Xenor had said it was my choice, but Adrian had wanted me to have nothing to do with the Shinra, and certainly not get involved in the eco-terrorism.

It honestly didn't help that he was a veteran of the AVALANCHE War. The AVALANCHE back then wasn't as righteous as the current incarnation.

If memory serves, the leader, or someone high up the chain of command, one Fuhito wanted to destroy the world or some such. Righteous in words, doesn't always mean righteous in actions.

Eventually, I took a deep breath and let myself in.

The home was... cosy looking. It was clear that it was the home of a group of males, it lacked that touch that marked the presence of a female, but despite that, it was clear that the people who lived here took care of their home. As I looked I could see ghosts, my memories taking a form outside of my mind, of my life in this home.

On one of the shelves, I noticed a framed photo and moved towards it, gently picking it up.

The photo held me, as a small child, in the arms of the resident Vortigaunt. It's hard to read the alien's expression, but I swear he was smiling.

The sound of a footstep had me putting the photo back and turning around. In one of the doorways stood the Vortigaunt in question, looking at me, head tilted slightly. We stood, staring at each other for several seconds, before I grinned.

"Hey." I greeted.

Xenor nodded back, moving towards me. Once he was in range, he grabbed me into a tight bear-hug... which felt weird with the extra arm coming out of his chest, but at the same time, right.

After he finally released me, he examined me more closely, and I could see all of his red eyes drifting to the scar going across my eye, though several eyes then peered closely at my forehead.

"How did you gain such injuries?" He asked, voice serious.

"Huh?" I asked, dumbly.

"That scar will never truly heal, for a reason I cannot discern. Your forehead however, the injury is older, but so extensive that even aided by magic, it will still take a while to heal fully."

"Yeah, I still feel the phantom pains..." I mumbled, before looking at Xenor. "How could you tell, it looks perfectly normal to me."

The Vortigaunt gave a rough sounding chuckle.

"You forget, young one, that not all of my eyes see the world as you do. I can see the natural energies of your body, and amongst the various injuries you seem to have acquired in your absence, those two are the most prominent."

"Right..."

"Though I am curious as to how you were injured in such a sensitive place, not once, but twice..."

...

_Shit... How does one go about telling a father-figure that I was hit in the family jewels once by accidental collision of a pole and once through the swift kick of a scorned female?_

_'That'd be an awkward conversation.' _Spike inserted his input. _'Yeah pops, the last Ancient accidentally hit me in the gonads because we taught her to be a head-banger, and oh, the other time? Yeah, a hot Turk didn't take kindly to being put out with the trash... No, I don't have much luck with the women... Yes, I should probably stay away from them for the rest of my natural life... maybe turn gay...'_

_Shut up, Spike._

"Ah..." I managed to utter, before being saved by the entry of another presence.

Turning around, I came face to face with a tall, dark haired man, dressed in urban camouflaged fatigues. The most noticeable thing about him, besides the extremely wicked looking gunblade that was slung across his back (clearly a design that required two hands to use, unlike my gunblade), was the Mako glow in his eyes.

_Adrian Shepard, I presume._

The SOLDIER's lips twitched into a momentary smile, before his eyes drifted to my scar, and the smile vanished, along with his eyes hardening.

"How you get that?" He demanded to know, poking at the scar.

"Oh that's a fine how'd-you-do." I waved my hands, as I back-pedalled away from him. "At least Xenor had the decency to actually greet me before asking about my injuries. **Asking**, mind, not demanding."

Shepard looked abashed a moment, then his eyes hardened again.

"Injur**ies**, plural?" He growled, turning to Xenor. "What injuries?"

_'Jeez, he's just a tad over-protective, isn't he?'_

_No wonder we left to go to Midgar, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic already..._

"What injuries?" Adrian asked again.

Trying to ward off the over-protective mother-hen, Xenor answered, waving all three arms in an effort to keep the human away.

"He had a serious injury on his forehead, serious enough that even his high-level magic, it's still in the process of repairing itself. It looks like he had to take pain-killers for a while, the phantom pains would have been so severe."

Eyes wide, Adrian turned to face me again.

"What happened?" He demanded.

"A sodding berserker decided that it would be great fun to toss me off a mountain face first, and then followed after me, making sure my face was against the mountain as we fell."

Shepard winced at the mental image, before registering something in his mind.

"What were you doing with a berserker on a mountain?" He asked, eyes narrowed.

"Well it was hardly like I knew that the commander that was marching his forces up the mountain was a berserker, was it?" I snapped. "I certainly didn't ask for the friendly folk at Shinra to send a berserker marching up to Fort Condor."

"You were at Fort Condor?" Shepard gaped. "This would be after you threw the President's pet off of the roof of Shinra Tower?"

"Yea... Wait, how did you know about that?"

"Never mind that." Shepard waved the question aside. "What did you **do** to Garland?"

"Eh? I don't know, I can't remember much after actually being thrown off of the mountain." I shrugged. "Why?"

"Because Grand Commander Garland Thorn was admitted to a Shinra hospital with serious neck injuries."

"Define 'serious neck injuries'. I remember putting a bullet in his brain and he was still going, so it'd have to be one hell of a neck injury."

"Serious as in he had no throat left."

I paused, remembering waking up in the medical bay with the taste of blood in my mouth. I can remember thinking that it wasn't mine, but I was doped up on vicodin at the time, and still partially in shock, so I was hardly in a reasonable state of mind to be believed.

"I blacked out shortly after landing. I don't know what happened to Garland; for all I know, someone else finished him off."

Shepard seemed to relax, though he still gazed at me weirdly.

"And the scar? Why haven't you healed it yet?"

"I can't." I answered, honestly.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"He means that it is not possible, and it is not from lack of trying." Xenor cut in. "I can even see an energy that is pure is spirit that would normally heal any injuries with the greatest of ease has been unable to even begin to repair the damage."

"How the hell did you get an injury that is unhealable?" Shepard asked.

Oh, this is not going to end well, I can already see that.

"I... kinda..."

"Spit it out!"

"IgotintoafightwithSephiroth!"

Shepard hesitated...

"I heard Sephiroth mentioned... run that by me again, in plain Gaian this time."

"I. Got. Into. A. Fight. With. Sephiroth."

Both Adrian and Xenor stared at me, unblinking, though for all I know, Xenor might not blink normally.

"How in the hell did you get into a fight with Sephiroth?" Shepard asked, confused.

"Indeed. The one known as Sephiroth was killed at Nibelheim." Xenor felt the need to point out.

"Well clearly he is a very touchy dead man. He really didn't appreciate being called a momma's boy."

Shepard sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Why did you call Sephiroth a momma's boy exactly?"

"Because he keeps referring to Jenova as 'mother'."

Xenor himself looked up sharply at the mention of Jenova.

"Impossible. Jenova was destroyed many millennia ago." He growled.

"Shinra found the remains. Apparently Sephiroth has some connection to them, it's the reason he burnt Nibelheim, the remains were stored in the reactor."

"How do you know this?" Shepard queried.

"I'm travelling with two Nibelheim survivors. One is the other SOLDIER. Cloud Strife."

Instead of looking up at the name of the SOLDIER he'd met in Nibelheim, Adrian looked confused.

"Cloud?"

"Look, never mind." I muttered. "I was just visiting while I had a chance; as soon as the buggy is fixed, I'll probably be gone again."

Shepard sighed at my statement.

"Right. No way I can talk you out of it?"

"None whatsoever."

Another, sigh.

"One question, young one." Xenor spoke up. "Why are you wearing nothing beneath your coat?"

"My t-shirt got shredded in a fight with the Turks." I shrugged. "I had friends to help, so my clothes were the only things damaged."

Shepard nodded, and as he looked away, I shot Xenor a look, knowing that he could already tell I'd been injured and killed. The Vortigaunt nodded, giving me a conspiratorial grin.

"I will go and prepare some dinner." The alien said after a pause, retreating into what I believe was the kitchen.

With the alien gone, Shepard looked at me again, before actually smiling this time.

"It's good to see you, again." He finally said.

I found myself joining in the smile.

"Yeah, good to be back. Though I find myself wondering why I missed your mother hen habits..."

At the cry of mock outrage, I sprinted up the stairs, moving towards where I knew my bedroom was.

I needed to grab my spare clothes. All of them. I had the means to carry the whole lot now, so I wasn't planning on wasting the chance. It would beat spending my precious gil on some new ones.

* * *

Roughly an hour later, I had a full belly, and was wondering around Cosmo Canyon, taking in the sights.

At that moment in time, I was wearing a new pair of jeans, my old ones having been gleefully tossed away, the blood stains having made their mark permanent, and a plain black tank top. My coat was, for once, not being worn, but was instead in my storage materia (I really need to find of a better name, it sounds so weird calling it storage materia, even though that's what it was).

I paused my travels at one part of Cosmo Canyon that wasn't in my memories of this place before I'd left.

A tattooist...

Now this presents an opportunity. It'll be a while before I'm legally old enough to get a tattoo, and that's if I actually decide to get one. But here, in this world, I can get a tattoo here and now, and there won't be any permanent consequences.

Who says I can't take advantage of my predicament in such a way?

It was with that mentality that I found myself, forty minutes later, with a tattoo. Ok, it was probably fairly unoriginal, considering that it was a tribal lizard that had been tattooed onto my upper left arm, the tail of which coiled around my arm, but I like it.

And I'm not about to let anything anyone says to me deter me from this fact.

Even if I have to wait a couple of days before I can actually remove the bandage that covered it. Something about avoiding getting it infected...

Anyway, I continued wondering around and eventually found myself in the library. The huge library that was literally stacked to the ceiling with books and scrolls and the like.

It also had somebody sitting, hunched over a table, reading something, intently.

"Who are you?" I asked, not recognising him as an Elder.

The man sat up and gave me a small wave, turning to look at me.

"Hello there. Not often you see Bangaa in this part of the world." The man commented, before blinking, and taking a closer look. "And you aren't a Bangaa, are you?"

"No." I shook my head. "I'm just one of a kind."

"Aren't we all?" The man smirked. "Still, not often one sees any form of sentient non-human in the northern continents."

"As opposed to wherever you came from?"

"Ivalice. And indeed, many other species down there. Bangaa, Moogles, Vierra..."

"So what brings you up to the north?" I asked.

"Knowledge. I'm looking for something known as the Cache of Glabados." The man answered, peering at the texts in front of him. "You wouldn't know anything of it, would you?"

"Cache of Glabados? Can't say I so." I shook my head.

"Shame... the Cache of Glabados appears to be a rather elusive find. Get a hint, follow the hint, only to learn that it hadn't been where it was supposed to be for several millennia. Get another riddle that tells us of its resting place, and repeat."

"Sounds irritating."

A snort of amusement was the response.

"The best things in life are guarded by such irritations."

"Right, well happy hunting." I grunted.

Shaking my head in amusement, I exited the library, but was halted at the door by the man's voice.

"It's Balthier."

"Huh?" I turned back to face the man.

"You asked who I was, well, I'm Balthier."

"Spike." I nodded at the man.

"Good like with your own hunt, Spike."

"Thanks."

I exited the library, no interruptions this time, and was quickly found by Red, who'd apparently been looking for me. The large red lupine hesitated, nose twitching as he looked at the bandage around my arm. I suppose that he could smell the ink.

"Spike, you never did get to see Grandpa's apparatus, did you?" He asked, after shaking the smell of the ink from his mind.

"Can't say I ever did. Why?"

"There is room for one more, if you go to Grandpa's study, you'll get to see."

"You're not coming?"

"I've seen it, and it's you and the rest who plan on saving the planet."

I nodded, softly.

"Right."

And thus I was walking up the long flight of stairs that led to Bugenhagen's study, while Red had decided to go and sit at the Cosmo Candle. I have a feeling that he was just being lazy.

The inside of Bugenhagen's study was... cramped. Books lay all over the place, leaving only a trail to a ladder, and a trail to a door clear. Each book, from what I saw, was based on the study of the Lifestream, and the planet in general.

"Here, over here. The door's unlocked, come on in. Ho Ho Hoooo." A loud voice laughed, making me jump.

The voice came from behind the door, and considering that he mentioned that the door was unlocked, I assumed that that was where I had to go.

The door led to a spacious looking room, with a domed ceiling which looked as though it had been painted blue numerous times in the past few years.

Waiting for me was Cloud, Tifa, Barret and Bugenhagen... appeared to be floating about a foot above the ground... or rather, the giant green ball he was sitting on was floating... huh?

Bugen was clearly aged, his face, though showing that he was jovial in nature, was marred with deep wrinkles and he was completely bald. He wore dark, round spectacles, which were perched in the tip of his nose, and a heavy blue robe. His goatee was neatly trimmed.

They were all waiting for me by a strange contraption in the center of the room.

"Welcome, Spike." Bugenhagen greeted me. "Come forwards, so that we may begin."

I took several steps forwards, and the creepy old man clapped his hands together.

"Ho Ho Hoooo." He chuckled, sounding suspiciously like Santa Claus.

Dress him in red, and he'd look the part too.

"Then let's begin." He said, once his laugh was over. "I'll be standing here."

His definition of standing must be different from mine. He's **sitting** on a floating green ball, that is the opposite of standing.

With his words said, Buganhagen flicked some unseen switch.

The room darkened, the lights now turned off. For several seconds, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, but then a different source of light emerged. The ceiling itself seemed to glow, and yet, it wasn't.

Speaking of the ceiling, it had changed to look like an ocean of stars.

I barely had the time to register all of this, before the floor vibrated and then began to rise. Myself and the other three stumbled slightly, not having been prepared for this sudden development. The floor clicked into place, and then everything changed. The ceiling now looked like the real thing, and floating above us was the solar system of this world.

Barret gaped, frantically trying to see everything all at once, while Tifa took the time to carefully examine everything, amazement sown onto her features. Cloud was the one who reacted the least, but his wide eyes showed that he was just as surprised.

I've got to say, the scene from the game? It does not do this justice.

"Wow!" Tifa exclaimed at last. "It's just like the real thing!"

Bugan nodded, floating slightly higher, so that he now rested beneath the Jupiter look-alike.

"Yes, pretty good." He hummed. "This is my laboratory. All the workings of space, are entered into this 3D holographic system."

Tifa continued to look around in amazement, before gasping in surprise.

"Look, look!" She cried out. "A shooting star"£

As if it was a signal, everything started to move. I briefly watched the shooting star that Tifa had pointed out, before turning my gaze to a which had chosen that moment to rotate into my field of vision. I would have claimed that it was Mars, but to my knowledge, Mars was rotating around a larger planet. Nor did it have seven moons of its own.

At that moment, a trio of comets shot by, zooming past Bugenhagen, until they were consumed by a nearby black hole. Then, everything still again.

"Oh, this is amazing!" Tifa repeated.

I had to agree with her. If anything, she was understating the fact, but I couldn't think of a word that worked better.

"Yes, it is something, isn't it." Bugen said, after another Santa laugh. "Well, let's get to the subject."

Everyone turned to give the older man their attention.

"Eventually... all humans." Bugen began, voice grim. "What happens when they die? The body decomposes and returns to the planet. That much, everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts, and their souls?"

He turned to face us.

"The soul too returns to the planet." He declared. "And not only that of humans, but everything on this planet. In fact, all living things in this universe are the same. The spirits that return to the planet merge with one another and roam the planet.

"They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream'. Lifestream, in other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the planet."

Bugen gave each of us a hard look.

"'Spirit energy' is a term you should never forget." He declared. "A new life... Children are blessed with spirit energy, and are brought into the world. Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the planet... of course, as with every rule, there **are** exception, that that is the way of the world."

Shaking his head, the old man turned back to the solar system.

"I've digressed, but you'll understand better if you watch this."

On some unspoken command, everything began moving again, but when the planet easily identifiable as Gaia came next to Bugen, all else disappeared.

On the top of the world was a projection of a person, and a tree. For several seconds, nothing happened, but then they started to disintegrate, turning into two separate streams of energy, one blue, the other yellow. Both streams met, and merged, forming a single green stream, which then transformed into a new person. This began repeating all over the world.

"Spirit energy is a part of all life: birds, trees, humans." Bugan informed us. "The flow of that spirit energy is what allows this planet to exist. But what if we were to take that energy away.

With his question still hanging in the air, Begenhagen held out his hand, and all of the flowing energy, which by this point covered the entire planet, flowed away from the world and towards his hand, leaving behind a dark, empty husk which was once a world. The dead planet, for there was no other way to describe it, splintered and cracked apart, chunks slowly falling away, before the whole thing shattered.

"These are the basics of the Study of Planet Life." Bugen concluded.

"If the spirit energy is lost, our planet is destroyed..." Cloud repeated, with a sour expression evident.

"Spirit energy is efficient **because** it exists within nature." Bugenhagen claimed. "When spirit energy is forcefully extracted and manufactured, it can't accomplish its true purpose."

Now **that** sounded familiar.

"You're talking about Mako energy, right." Cloud asked.

"Everyday, Mako reactors suck up spirit energy, diminishing it." Bugen nodded. "Spirit energy gets compressed in the reactors and processed into Mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away."

"The reactors are forcefully disrupting the circle of life." I nodded. "There can be no new life to continue the circle, because the fuel of life is being destroyed."

The old man nodded. And on a hidden command, the floor lowered. Once it was back at ground level, the lighting changed to how it had been originally, and Barret and Tifa exited the room, deep in thought. I turned to follow, but paused at the sound of Cloud's voice.

"I'd like to ask about Nanaki's father." Cloud said to Bugenhagen, who gestured for the blond to continue. "He claims that his father was a coward..."

"Nanaki's father, a coward?" Bugen asked, shaking his head. "Has that been what he's thought all this time?"

"You didn't know?" I asked. "I remember him making that view clear to me, even when I was just a kid."

"I see." Bugan murmured, shaking his head some more.

Shrugging to myself, I left the room and began to move down to the Cosmo Candle, where I could already see everyone else sitting. Well, everybody except Cloud, but he's right behind me, so he doesn't count.

I sat down, between Barret and Cait Sith, making myself comfortable. Cloud joined me later. He turned to look at Barret, who seemed to be feeling a little nostalgic.

"Cosmo Canyon... This's where AVALANCHE was born..." Barret mused. "I promised my guys someday... when we saved the planet from the Shinra, that we'd all go to Cosmo Canyon and celebrate... Biggs... Wedge... Jessie... Now Wedge is gone... died for the planet. Really? To save the planet? We all... we all hate the Shinra... Do I even got to go on? Will he...... ...will he ever forgive me? ...Right now, I really don't know. But I know one thing. If there's anything I can do, to save the planet... or the people livin' on it...

"Then I'm gonna do it! I don't care if it's for justice or revenge, or whatever. I don't care......let'em decide for 'emselves. Urrrrrgh! I'm gonna do it!! Again... Again... AVALANCHE's born again!"

I flinched away from the loud man, who had jumped to his feet to yell out that last part at the top of his voice. Noticing that everyone was looking at him, Barret blushed slightly and sat down, mumbling under his breath.

Obviously fearing the safety of his eardrums, Cloud turned to me instead.

"So what's your story?" He asked, curiously.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"You say you live here, but that guard didn't like you, and I haven't seen anyone that looks like you. Are you the last of your kind, as Red is?"

I gave a soft snort, looking at the blond.

"Who knows. I was raised here, by a human and a Vortigaunt, who found me as a hatchling." I grunted with a shrug. "I'm one of those lame movie plots... I was found as a baby, and raised by complete strangers, and now that I'm older, I'm fighting an evil corporation, who if my life gets any more clichéd, will somehow be responsible for my existence."

"Hatchling?" Cloud asked.

"I'm a lizard, ergo, it is safe to assume I hatched from an egg. I have no belly button, so I definitely know that I wasn't born as you humans are."

Cloud nodded, after a moment of trying to figure out what I meant.

"Makes sense. No belly means no umbilical cord."

"Which means either I came from an egg, or artificial means..."

"How depressing." Cloud shook his head. "Vortigaunt?"

I looked up and pointed to the side, where I could see Xenor walking to wherever it was he was going.

"That guy." I grunted.

Cloud wasn't the only one who turned to look, Yuffie tried to get a look as well, and her mouth formed an 'o' shape as she saw him.

"I see what you meant by being beaten on the unique looks." She finally said.

I chuckled, and turned to gaze at the fire...

"What's this you've been saying about this one behind this one's back?" A gravely voice said, right near my ear.

"GAH!" I cried out, leaping to my feet, hand resting over my now rapidly beating heart.

"Xenor, don't **do** that!" I stuttered. "I'll have a heart attack on of these days.

The Vortigaunt gave me a pointed look.

"Your heart is still perfectly healthy, if beating more rapidly than usual, but that is to be expected."

_Wise-ass, with your all seeing eyes._

"And please refrain from trying to insult this one with your thoughts."

"What, are you psychic now?"

"No, this one merely knows you too well." Xenor answered without missing a beat.

I was tempted to flip the bird at him, but decided to refrain from the act. It would make me seem even more immature than Yuffie, and that would be a bad thing.

The Vortigaunt gave a chuckle, examining each member of AVALACNHE before resting all of his eyes on Red.

"It is most excellent to see you alive and well once again, Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon." Xenor bowed.

"And you too, Xenor." Red nodded back.

Again, the Vortigaunt gave everyone a look before buggering off to wherever he was going originally, unless he had only come out to try and give me a heart attack.

"Your heart is perfectly **fine**, young one."

Shit, he really does know me a little too well.

"Still eccentric as ever, I see." Red commented.

"You say eccentric, I say he just enjoys annoying me." I responded.

Sitting myself back down, I gazed into the eternal flame, ignoring Cloud making his round of talking to each member of AVALANCHE, only speaking up when Aeris made a comment about being alone.

"So are two other people sitting around this flame. Red is publicly acknowledged as the last of his kind. Me, I have absolutely no idea. Welcome to the club. We got t-shirts."

Aeris nodded at that, and Cloud continued his rounds, ending with Red, who told Cloud about Seto.

"What happened?" Cloud asked, in genuine curiosity.

"It's about my parents." Red admitted. "When I talk about my mother, I am full of pride and joy... And that's fine. ...But when I remember my father, my heart is full of anger..."

"...You really can't forgive your father...?"

At the new voice, I looked up to see Bugenhagen floating down towards us.

"Of course." Red snarled. "He...... left mother for dead. When the Gi tribe attacked, he ran off by himself, leaving mother and the people of the Canyon!"

Red's adopted grandpa sighed, looking at the lupine sadly, before turning around.

"...Come, Nanaki. There's something you should see."

Red's face was a question mark.

"The place may be dangerous. Cloud, will you and Spike come with us?"

Cloud nodded, and both he and I stood up, already checking our weapons. With the temporary absence of my coat, my gunblade's sheath was attached to the back of my belts, so that the handle stuck out to my left, in the perfect place to pull it free. Ok, having the other end of the gunblade sticking out to my right was a bit irritating, but that was why I had it slanted, so that it pointed downwards, in order to limit the amount sticking out.

Once I'd checked that all my materia was in place, including several orbs in an anklet I had bought while exploring Cosmo Canyon. It made sense for me to use an anklet rather and a bracer, partially due to my hating anything toughing my arms (wrist watch being the exception), and besides, when an enemy evaluates us, their eyes will check us for bracers, not for an anklet which was hidden under a pair of jeans.

Even if at the moment it only held my restore and ice materia.

At least this meant I was no longer stunting myself of how much materia I could equip.

Once we'd checked our equipment, I followed after Bugenhegan.

If memory serves, we'll be in the middle of some action soon.

* * *

AN::

Right, until January, I won't be writing anymore chapters. My reason is thus:

I've noticed that a lot of the delays in posting chapters, comes because I went and completely burnt myself out writing too much to quickly. So I came up with a new system in order to try and avoid this.

What I will do, is write this fic, in seasons. Like on TV.

I will spend an entire month writing out as many chapters as I can, only writing into the next month to finish a chapter I'd already started. However, I will not post any of these chapters, not yet.

The next month, I will post these new chapters, one at a time, at a set time, on a set day (likely Saturday), weekly.

The next month will be my relaxation month. I will do nothing but use my imagination to consider new ideas and the like, but I won't actually do anything physical that involves IWGH2.

The next month, the process starts over.

This way, I won't completely burn myself out, and will still be writing to a set schedule. A highly flexible schedule.

This means that I will actually have a set time I can ease off the work, which, while it might be enjoyable for me, still gets boring if I do nothing BUT write write write...

As a target, I'd try to release 5 chapters a season, but forgive me if I do end up writing less. Life happens and all that shit.

Remember that this is experimental, but I have high hopes that in doing this in seasons, it will prevent those delays, because I'm that much less likely to burn myself out.

And as a side note, because it would become a set routine, it works well with my Asperger's Syndrome (yes, I'm mildly autistic, deal).

And yet another side note, admittedly, this is best case scenario, but if I manage to get my target each season, that means a minimum of 20 chapters a year. And it gives me my birthday and Christmas to relax (along with two other months, which don't really hold any significance).

And the reason I don't count the month that I upload the chapters as rest months will be because I'll be going ever each chapter with a fine tooth comb multiple time in order to iron out any graphical errors. So while I won't be properly writing, I will still be working on quality control.

And on an unrelated note... if you send me PMs telling me to 'hurry up and upload the next chapter or [insert death threat]', at least make sure that your death threat sounds comical in nature. That way, while telling me that yes, you are eager for an update, you also give me a good laugh.


	24. FatherSon Bonding

Chapter 23: Father-Son Bonding

We met Bugenhagen at an oversized metal door, one which looked rather out of place here in Cosmo Canyon. I peered at the door curiously, but shrugged, turning my attention to Bugen and the two figures standing near him.

"Ho Ho Hoooo." The wizened old geezer laughed. "Shall we go? All right. Come in, come in."

"Wait... Spike's coming along?" One of the two figures standing near Bugen asked, and I actually turned to look at them.

"Oh, great. The mother-hen strikes back." I snapped, realizing that it was Adrian who'd spoken up.

"No, this is too dangerous." He returned, turning to look at Bugenhagen. "I'll not allow him to go."

Xenor, the other figure, shook his head, looking rather annoyed.

"Shepard, cease your whining." The Vortigaunt snapped. "Whether you like it or not, Spike is perfectly capable of making his own decisions and defending himself. He has as much of a right as we do to follow the Elder."

You can always tell when Xenor is annoyed; it's the only time that he ever addresses anyone by their actual name.

The ex-SOLDIER looked abashed for several brief seconds, before recovering, and opened his mouth to make a response, when Cloud cut him off.

"I don't know what you think about Spike's abilities, but he has proven himself to be an able fighter, and one who I'd trust to watch my back any day." He glared, looking briefly more like the Cloud I'd first met back in Midgar, before he'd began to open up with the rest of AVALANCHE.

Shepard seemed to hesitate at the glare, frowning.

"I have a right to say whether or not he comes." He countered.

"And I have a right to say whether or not I listen to your over-protectiveness." I hissed. "I'm going."

"Even if I wasn't going before, I am now." Adrian declared, giving me the evil-eye.

"I don't know him. He's some strange man that insists on stalking me." I stage whispered to Red, who chuckled softly.

Bugen had watched the exchange with a look of amusement, but now that we were stopping, he turned to a stack of boxes, and flipped, what I assumed, was a hidden switch.

The large metal doors opened, with a very nasty grating sound that told me that there was much rust somewhere along the line. Once fully opened, I saw that on the other side of the large doors, was a cave.

"That was anti-climatic." I muttered.

_'Maybe what you're meant to see is somewhere __**in**__ the cave, kupo.' __Montblanc suggested._

_Gee, thanks Montblanc, I would never have figured that out._

_'My pleasure, kupo.'_

_I was being sarcastic._

_'So was I, kupo.'_

Great, the voices in my head are back-talking me.

Shaking my head clear, I made the first step into the cave, before pausing.

"Hey? Aren't you going with us, Grandpa?" Red asked.

"What are you crazy?" Bugen asked, in good humour. "It's dangerous in there. I told you that! You think an old man like me should go first? I'll be right behind you."

"And Adrian and Xenor?" I asked, having gotten the impression that they were coming with us.

"Will be coming with us. A few extra blades never hurt anyone."

_Except for the monsters._ I mused.

The inside of the cave was dimly lit, and it took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the lighting. When they had, I was glad I hadn't decided to try exploring beforehand; else I probably would have fallen off the edge.

"Jeez, warn someone about the drop next time, will ya?" I muttered, glaring at the drop in question.

"My apologies, it's been a while since I've let people unfamiliar with these caves into this place." The old man waved aside my sarcasm.

The only way down, was a rope, which led to another ledge, where you had to grab yet another rope and slide down it to yet another ledge. And repeat… Several times.

Red, being unable to use the rope, used his agility to simply jump from ledge to ledge, until at long last, we reached the bottom. The whole time, I looked wistfully at Bugenhagen's floating ball. That thing would have made this journey considerably easier.

At ground level, was a single archway, which happened to be the only available exit without backtracking. Just looking through the archway, I could tell that that was where the danger of the place lurked.

Apparently, so could Cloud, because one look, and his hand twitched, moving to rest on the hilt of his Buster Sword. Adrian took it one step further and pulled his gunblade free from his back and rested it on his shoulder.

I could now see the design for the Ex-SOLDIER's weapon. It was a long, silver blade, with the hilt being a similar design to a pump-action shotgun... I'd say a Remington 870 or whatever it was, but it looked like the ammunition was stored within a magazine fixed to the underside of the weapon. I was all of a sudden feeling very relieved that I wasn't likely to be on the wrong end of **that** weapon any time soon.

"I'm going to assume that the nasties aren't going to welcome us with open arms." I muttered, double checking my Materia one last time before it was too late.

My current stock of Materia was made up of: the Essential Three (apparently the title for the basic three elementals, fire, ice and thunder), a mid-level Restore Materia (Restore being one half of the Critical Two apparently, the other being Revive Materia), and an Enemy Skill Materia. Oh, and not to forget my apparently sarcastic Moogle's Materia.

You can tell that my specialty is in melee combat. I only had the basics, and even then not even all of them. Apparently, apart from the Essential Three and the Critical Two, there was the Support Four, which consisted of Esuna, Time, Dispel and Protective.

Yeesh, I learnt all of that from Cloud, who had made a point of telling all of AVALANCHE at some point. It was the basic system which all of SOLDIER followed. Every SOLDIER operative had to have the Essential Three and the Critical Two at all times, the Support Four being the optional stuff that generally served to make life easier, but was not quite as important. Usually, it was the dedicated spell-casters that had the Support Four, and if the spell-casters were unable to use the Esuna, then that was where actually using the items came in handy.

The reason Cloud told us this was clear, it was a system that worked. The reason even melee combatants were required to have the Essential Three was because, if they came across something that wasn't very easy to kill by hitting it, then it generally had a weakness to one of those three elements. The Critical Two was also very obvious. They save lives, enough said. I haven't got the Revive Materia yet because I haven't seen any available to be claimed by me yet. Apparently, as well as being critical, it was also a hard-to-come-by Materia. Rare enough that not even the resident Materia Hunter had acquired one. For now, Phoenix Downs will have to do, but a Revive is one of the goals I have. Same goes to about half of the members of AVALANCHE if memory serves.

But enough on Materia and its various categories… yes, there are more, but by the time Cloud reached that point in the lecture, I'd fallen asleep. I am so glad that he was never a school teacher; school tends to be boring enough without him droning on and on.

Overall point, I was good to go.

"So, what is this place?" I asked, raising an eyebrow ridge.

Apparently my voice went unheard. While I'd been double checking my Materia, everyone had exited the cave, leaving me to speak to myself like a total prat.

"Hey, wait for me!" I called out, sprinting out of the exit.

Thankfully, they had only just exited, so I caught up with the group quickly enough. The new cave was dimly lit, and didn't look safe, even if you excluded the monsters which were doing a fine job of being invisible at that moment in time. They were out there, something about the place gave me a bad feeling, one which I'd come to associate with large amounts of monsters. The only apparent exception to that would be the scorpion swarm of death back in Midgar. Apparently, over-sized insects didn't trigger my danger senses. Or else they just hadn't developed at the time, hard to say without looking for another scorpion swarm of death, something that I planned on **not** doing, any time soon.

Ok, so I'm stretching the truth. I just remember that this place was crawling with nasties from back home, and that Bugenhagen asked me and Cloud to join him and Red, **after **mentioning that it was dangerous. That implies monster danger, not 'oops, the ceiling just collapsed on me' danger.

From where we were stood, I could see that this cave was a maze. And the exit was… nowhere in sight, even from our elevated position. Great, and here I was lamenting about how we needed more mazes in our lives.

That was sarcasm, by the way.

A glance at Adrian and Xenor showed that the pair had taken up protective positions either side of Bugen.

"So why are you two here anyway?" I asked.

"I am here, because I am long over-due to show my respects." Xenor sort of avoided the question. "The 'over-protective mother-hen' is here as extra protection for the Elder Bugenhagen."

Adrian snorted at the nick-name that he'd been given.

"You'd do well not to underestimate the monsters down here." The ex-SOLDIER grunted. "These aren't your garden variety creatures."

"And we aren't your garden variety travellers either." Cloud felt the need to point out. "We can take care of ourselves."

"I doubt that I'd have made it home without Cloud and Spike's assistance." Red added.

Best not mention that there have been a number of close calls, such as the over-grown snake in the marsh south of Choco Bill's farm, or that we were almost condemned to Coral Prison.

Adrian seemed to shrug the words aside. Miserable git, he doesn't want to acknowledge that I don't need to be mother-henned.

We started to move along one of the various paths in order to find the way forwards, Bugen claiming to have forgotten the way, due to his age. Senile old coot… if he couldn't remember the way, why have us walking around in a dangerous cave? Hoping we'd magically find the way?

I really hoped he'd remember the way.

This was especially true when several forms seemed to fade into existence around us. They looked like skeletons, only they were purple, yes, their bones were purple, clad in a beige cloth with dark grey cowls and holding spears. The single feather attached to each skull gave these floating spirits a tribal look.

"Gis." Red snarled, teeth mashing together.

Ah, so that's why they had a tribal look, they were in fact part of the tribe that had attacked Cosmo Canyon, so long ago.

I pulled Talon free from its sheath, gripping it tightly as I rolled my eyes over each Gi. There were a couple dozen of them, all armed with spears. And this ability of theirs to appear out of thin air gave them an edge in ambushing us, making them a dangerous foe.

One of the Gis thrust its spear at Cloud, who side-stepped the blow and gored it with the Buster Sword, before pivoting around the floating spirit, yanking the blade free and using his momentum to slice through a second Gi.

Adrian took Cloud's actions as a signal to begin his own assault. His shotgunblade was stabbed into the ribcage of the Gi nearest to him and he pulled the trigger, releasing a powerful blast that essentially disintegrated what was left of the Gi, before slicing sideward, cutting through another of the floating spirits, pumping the shotgun even as he did so. After he'd cut down the Gi unfortunate enough to be in his path, Shepard twisted his body around, redirecting the direction his blade flew, without loosing any of its momentum, pulling the trigger as it passed a nearby Gi, destroying it, and even as the blade continued on its path, Adrian pumped the next shell into the chamber.

Adrian Shepard was quite literally a hurricane of destruction. I was not going anywhere near him during a battle, not if I could help it.

I didn't get a chance to observe how Red was doing against the Gis, because a couple of them somehow got it into their heads that I was an easy target. I was sorry to disappoint them… wait, no I wasn't, I felt a small sense of satisfaction that I disappointed them in their beliefs that I was an easy target.

The one nearest to me felt the wraith of my inner pyromaniac, as I decided that I'd never actually used my Enemy Skill Materia, so therefore, it was time to at least test out how well it worked.

I have to say that using a magical flamethrower was very satisfying, though it felt extremely weird having the flames come shooting out of my mouth! I'm a Chinese Water Dragon, not a sodding Fire Drake; do I look like a fire breathing dragon? Well, when I'm not casting Flame Thrower at least.

I could have done without the Gi screaming as it burnt, it had a very high pitched scream and my ears were left ringing in the aftermath.

The second Gi thrust its spear at me, and I ducked under the crude wooden stick with a sharp piece of rock on the end. The spirit must have used too much force when it stabbed at me though, because it clearly lost its balance. Never one to let such an opportunity go to waste, I levelled my gunblade at the skull and fired. Bone shrapnel flew in all directions as the Gi Spirit lost its head over being so easily beaten.

_Must resist urge to say something incredibly lame._

"Don't lose your head over something so trivial." I smirked.

Ok, so I was never any good at stopping my impulsive urges to be lame.

The rest of the Gi's body seemed to fade from existence, clearly in awe of my wit, or lack, thereof.

I was forced to refocus my attention when a third Gi decided that it would rather take its chances in a fight against me rather than Cloud, Red or Adrian 'the Hurricane' Shepard.

I'm noticing a pattern with these Gi spirits. All they seem to be capable of is stabbing motions. Well, ok, with a spear as poor as the ones that the Gis seemed to be using, that was understandable, but it was getting a little too easy to defend myself. Where's the challenge?

A quick side-step and an upward slash from my gunblade, and Gi number three was dead… deader… what is the term for killing something that's technically already dead?

I must have been thinking on this strange paradox of killing dead things a little too intently, because when I looked up, a fourth had already come to replace the one that I had seemingly only just defeated. Grunting, I tried to slash at this new one, but this Gi seemed to have learnt something from the defeat of its predecessors and managed to avoid my blade and then managed to grab it, with surprising strength, keeping me from being able to follow up with a second attack.

"Get off!" I snarled, trying to pull my gunblade back to myself. "Mine! Let go!"

Clearly the Gi begged to differ, and screeched at me with its banshee wail in response to my commands. I hate that scream, it seriously hurts my ears.

The floating spirit made a mistake though, and the end of the blade eventually came into a position where it was pointing at the Gi's torso, letting me pull the trigger to pump the drat thing full of lead. The spirit shuddered at each pull of the trigger, screeching at me some more, but still refused to let go.

Fine, it was asking for a dose of something-ara. I have three elements at my disposal, and I have the ability to ara each of them, be it blizzara, thundara or fira. Since I'd already burnt something, much to the dismay of my eardrums, it was time to let loose the fury of some thunder…

Only I never got a chance, because right as I began to start focusing on the spell, ready to use it, a stream of green lightning arced forwards, accompanied by a yell of '**to the void with you!'** and completely disintegrated the Gi.

Well that was a shocking development.

Blinking, I turned to look at Xenor, who gave a small wave on noticing that I was giving him a sour look. That hadn't been what I'd had in mind.

"And you couldn't have saved my eardrums from the screaming of that thing earlier?" I asked him, rhetorically.

"This one got much amusement from watching you play tug-of-war with a screaming Gi." Xenor shrugged; relaxing from the stance he'd been in when he'd fired the electricity at the spirit.

"So glad I can amuse you so." I muttered sarcastically.

The Vortigaunt seemed to laugh at me, before checking that all of the other Gis were defeated. They were, and everyone was unhurt, though Shepard was glaring at everything in general as if expecting more of them to appear.

They probably were, though if the majority were as dumb as most of the ones that had just attacked us were, then I really don't see what the big deal is with these Gis, unless they'd had mass numbers on their side. That's a point, for all we know, those dozen we just wiped out were the advance party, testing our defences and capabilities.

Send the stupid, weak and all-round expendable and use them to test the foe, that way, the strong and mighty and all-round **not** expendable have an even greater chance of destroying the foe. Clever bastards, at least, that was assuming that my theory was indeed correct.

Knowing my luck, I just sounded all intelligent only to be completely wrong, and these Gis are just going to swarm us, one after the other.

"Let's not stand around for too long, lest we're attacked by more Gis." Bugen spoke up, voice void of laughter.

I suppose that to be laughing in the aftermath of a battle would be in poor taste, even if we were the victors. And the topic was one that I wouldn't laugh at either.

"We need to find a switch that will open up this part of the wall in order to continue." Bugen continued, gesturing at the wall behind him.

"A switch?" Cloud asked; arms crossed. "I'm going to wager a guess that this switch will be hidden."

The old man nodded.

"Hidden, but not so hidden that we'll never find it." He answered. "You see the small cracks in the walls? The switch is hidden within one of those cracks. The difficulty is in finding which crack, whilst being weary of further attacks by the Gi spirits."

"It'd be quicker to split up." Red mused. "That way we can check more of the cracks in a shorter span of time."

"Wouldn't that leave us open to attack from the Gi?" Adrian countered.

"We'd hardly be spreading ourselves **that** thin." I countered the counter. "And I'd like continue as quickly as we can without rushing."

Rushing would only get us killed after all.

Shepard frowned, but couldn't seem to find the words to argue against us. After several brisk seconds, he nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Fine. Xenor, Bugenhagen, stay here. Everyone else, let's start searching those cracks."

The Ex-SOLDIER gave a grimace as he said that, for whatever reason, but seemed to shake some cobwebs from his mind and moved towards the walls, doing his part.

I drifted over to some of the cracks and shoved my arm inside, searching for any hint of a hidden switch. After a couple of failures, Montblanc spoke up.

'_Would you like some help, kupo?'_

'_What can you do?' _Spike answered before I had a chance to.

'_For starters, I can be summoned, unlike you, kupo, so I can lend a couple of extra hands.'_

_But can you defend yourself if the Gi decide to attack? _I asked.

'_Did you never wonder what I did that allowed me the honour of becoming a summon-entity?'_

_I never actually thought about it._ I confessed.

'_I was __**the **__Moogle Knight, kupo.' _Montblanc stated, sounding very proud of himself.

_Moogle Knight?_

'_Usually Moogles are only very good at spell-casting or ranged classes.' _The Moogle explained. _'But I was the first Moogle to become a melee combatant, and in order to make up for the natural shortcoming that all Moogles have in regards to physical strength, I emphasised on fighting using my size and speed to my advantage, kupo. It was my actions that created the Moogle Knights. That's also the reason that Montblanc is a very popular name amongst Moogles.'_

_That's pretty interesting. _I admitted.

Ok, he's convinced me that he can actually help out and not have to rely on us to defend him. And I know that as a low-level summon, I can keep him summoned for a reasonable length of time, though this would be my first time summoning just Montblanc, with no Boko along for the ride.

Gathering the energy, I willed Montblanc into existence, making sure to not accidently summon his chocobo companion while at it. Useful as Boko can be, in these caves, short of a kamikaze attack, he'd be rather useless.

Releasing the energy, Montblanc appeared, fading into existence in a manner similar to the Gi, only rather than a floating skeleton; it was a Moogle, clad in clothing that looked like it had cost a fair sum, and that was even without it being behemoth leather (I'm never going to get over how much that cost me).

To be exact, Montblanc was a lavender furred Moogle with brown eyes, and a fairly relaxed stance. He was wearing a dark coat that reached his knees, with yellow lining and black leggings. On his shoulders were two pauldrons, a dull grey in colour. Beneath his coat, he wore a leather cuirass, and he wore what I could only think to call shin-pads, even though they looked more like they wore cut off from a full set of leg armour.

A sword resting in a sheath that hung from a thick leather belt. From what I could see of the sword, it was similar in shape to Tidus' Brotherhood sword.

Despite his size, he did look the part of a fighter.

He didn't look like a knight though. Then again, in my minds eye, I tend to see knights as being people encased in full plate mail, and the enemy tending to need to use can openers in order to actually get at the knight in question.

As if he could read my thoughts, Montblanc frowned at me.

"My priority was **speed**, kupo. If I'd worn plate mail, I'd be about as fast as a drunken Mu, kupo."

"I know, I know. Just stereotypical images in my mind. But isn't a leather cuirass leaving yourself rather under-protected?"

"My coat has chain-mail sown into it, kupo. The leather is a secondary piece of armour."

"Ah, that makes sense." I nodded. "But enough discussing the finer points of your armour, we still need to find that switch."

The Moogle Knight nodded and turned to start searching down a part of this maze that nobody had searched yet.

Even with the extra help, it still took the lot of us the better part of half an hour to find the switch to open the wall, and by that point, we'd split far enough apart that we weren't much help for each other if any of us were attacked.

Regrettably, it was by that point that the Gi decided that it was time for a rematch, and that this time; they would play with each of alone. Granted a few of us were close enough to be able to help each other, but that still meant that we were divided into two or three groups, and each group winded up fighting against roughly the same number of Gi spirits as what had attacked the group as a whole last time.

When this occurred, I had been near Red, and Montblanc, having realized what had happened, had quickly come to help us. This left us three, versus twenty-four or so Gis. Red had tilted his head slightly at the sight of Montblanc, but didn't ask any questions, either recognising him as the Moogle that had been riding Boko for a kamikaze attack back on Mount Condor, or else deciding that now wasn't the time to ask.

"So, we take eight each?" I joked, bringing my gunblade up to a defensive stance.

"That would be fair." Red nodded, hackles raised.

Judging from the feeling of static in the air around Red, he was preparing a spell to kick start this party. Well, in truth, it wasn't a spell he fired off at the Gi spirits. Oh no, it was much better than that. Instead, he summoned Ifrit. Hell hath no fury like a fire demon summoned.

Ifrit slammed to the ground, after bursting out of said ground, somehow not leaving a whooping great hole in his wake, and stretched, evil grin on his face. Swinging his massive fist, flames appeared, incinerating a number of the Gi, before the giant fire demon tensed, ready to unleash his main attack.

"Go get them, big, mean and ugly!" I cheered.

Apparently, Ifrit heard me, because he hesitated, giving me a sour look, eye twitching.

"Oh, thank you Spike. Now I'm going to have to put up with him ranting for an hour." Red muttered, sourly. "Just what I always wanted."

"I had no idea Ifrit was vain." I admitted, staring at the still twitching Ifrit.

"Nor did I, kupo, and I've known him for several millennia." Montblanc added. "I think you're the first person to ever have the guts to say something like that, kupo."

If anything, Ifrit's twitching increased. As the Gi seemed to recover from the shock of Ifrit having incinerated a number of them, they began to advance, pausing once again when Ifrit slammed a fist to the ground, completely crushing one of them.

"Just Hellfire the lot of them and dismiss." Red told Ifrit, who glared at me before doing so, incinerating a large number of the Gi spirits.

Shortly after, he vanished, continuing to glare at me the entire time. Jeez, considering that he's a great big fire demon, he is certainly rather sensitive, isn't he?

With Ifrit gone, the Gi decided that in all honestly, they'd delayed long enough and began to swarm towards us.

Cursing, I stabbed Talon into the nearest Gi and fired repeatedly, destroying a Gi that had been somewhere behind the impaled one. With that done, I wrenched my weapon free and swung it around to decapitate another Gi that had tried to sneak up on me. With its skull missing, the rest of the spirit vanished in defeat. I was then forced to duck under a stab from the spear of yet another Gi. While I had the chance, I grabbed the spear as it was still over me, and yanked it from the obviously surprised Gi's grip. I discarded the spear in the most efficient manner possible; I threw the drat thing at a Gi that had yet to get within range of any melee attacks. The spear stabbed through the skull, and the Gi, spear still embedded in it, vanished, taking my improvised weapon with it.

The Gi that I had stolen the spear from started to shriek in outrage, but I didn't give it a chance to do so for longer than a couple of seconds. While I was momentarily in the clear, I checked to see whether either of the other two needed any help. Red didn't, making good use of his Materia after every couple of attacks.

The star of this fight was clearly Montblanc though. If the display I was seeing was how he fought before he became a summon entity, then I'm not surprised that he was the one that founded the Moogle Knights.

The Moogle was a whirlwind of motion, never staying in one spot long enough to actually look at him properly.

Yoda, eat your heart out; Montblanc here is the new undisputed champion of bad-ass vertically challenged people. Seriously, Montblanc's fighting reminds me of Yoda's fight in Episode 2, only when I see Montblanc fight, it doesn't make me laugh at the scene, it makes me think 'oh wow, I had this badass living in **my** head'. One moment he was on the ground, stabbing through one of the Gis, the next he was spinning through the air, cutting down any of the spirits that happened to be in his path.

I can see what he meant by emphasising his speed.

Of course, the Gis didn't appreciate my standing around appreciating the badassery of Montblanc, and began to renew their attack. Grunting, I was forced to renew my own defence, and started to cut through them, cursing several times as I saw no end to the swarm.

How many were there left?

No time to count, just time to defend myself and that was it. Stab, slash, stab, stab, slice, and dodge, bang-bang-bang, duck, kick, parry, slash…

It all became a blur in my mind. One very and big nasty blur.

At a slight break in the action, I paused, eying the Gi swarm. Wait a second…

"Have we even cut their numbers down?" I asked, leaning to the side to avoid being skewered by a spear thrust.

The Gi that had tried to stab me was promptly destroyed by a good healthy dose of Fira.

Red rolled his eyes across the scene, panting slightly.

"No. If anything, there are more of them than when we started." He grumbled.

"I don't suppose Ifrit can come out and do another round of mass destruction, could he?" I asked.

"Not happening." Red cursed. "I'm drained."

Well, he had been using magic in battle more often than I had, so yes, until he got an Ether, he was probably too drained to bring out a summon for even one big attack.

"Besides which, he's still whining about how you called him ugly."

'_In future, please refrain from insulting the giant beasts that are summoned to help us.'_ Spike, ever helpful, decided to offer the most wonderful advice ever.

_Up yours._

As you can clearly see, I wasn't feeling very appreciative of this advice.

"Maybe we should try to fight our way to the others. Strength in numbers." I grunted.

"And how do we get to them without leading this swarm to them?" Red asked, whilst launching a Thundara at a group of Gis clumped a little too close together.

"Because I'll stay and hold them off, kupo." Montblanc spoke up, changing his stance to a more defensive one.

"You sure?" I asked, firing at a random Gi.

"Of course." Montblanc nodded. "It's not like I can die, kupo. If my physical body is injured fatally, I just return to your mind and recuperate. You won't be able to summon me for a length of time, but otherwise, no harm done, kupo."

"Ok, you've made your point." I agreed. "No harm done, and in the long run, it works for the best."

"Then we shall run on the count of 3." Red growled, casting another Fira.

"Right… 1." I began, readying myself for the run.

"2." Red continued, tensing.

"3!" I finished, casting Beta on the small group of Gi that were blocking the direction we wanted to run through.

The spell did the job of clearing our path, and both Red and I charged, leaving Montblanc to hold them off. As we turned the corner, I heard the Moogle's war cry of 'KUPO!' and the sounds of him doing more of his ass kicking badassery.

Yeah, as I had said before: Yoda, eat your heart out.

Thanks to Red's nose and the fact that he could use it even while running as fast as we were, we found our way to where everyone had parted ways, leaving Bugenhagen and Xenor whilst we checked cracks for switches. Though about halfway there, I started to hear the shotgun blasts from Adrian's gunblade and the cackle of Xenor's lightning blasts, or whatever the attack was called, so Red's nose was rendered obsolete compared to our ears, but we still wouldn't have reached that point if it weren't for his nose.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for us, in between smiting down Gi spirits. Adrian had decided to forgo using his shotgun blasts by that point, and was using his blade as a regular claymore. Either he was having ammo issues, or else the fact that he'd been forced into close proximity to Cloud and Xenor meant that he was unwilling to risk it, lest he accidently blast one of his allies.

Xenor unleashed a blast of his green electricity and it flew over my shoulder, almost giving me a heart attack, before I realized that he hadn't been aiming for me but at a Gi that had tried to attack us from behind.

"Get behind me!" Adrian shouted, resting his blade on his shoulder and holding one of his hands out in a strange manner.

A subconscious part of me realized that this was how Shepard focused his more powerful spells, and I sped up, sliding to a halt behind him.

Once the Ex-SOLDIER had confirmed that we were all behind him, he swung his arm towards the swarm of Gi and released the built up magical energies. At first nothing happened, and then I heard a bark, as if from a dog. Looking to the side, I spotted the source. A strange dog like animal stepped out from around a corner, followed closely by a large humanoid being, with a wide-brimmed hat.

Wait, was that Yojimbo?

Indeed, Adrian Shepard had just summoned the mercenary Aeon from Final Fantasy X. I seriously hoped that I wouldn't be forced to pay a small fortune just to get him to do anything.

"Kick their arses." Adrian growled, making a sweeping gesture to the mass of Gi.

The samurai looking summon nodded, holding one of his hands out in a familiar position, and a spark ignited into a flame around his hands. After a brief pause, a blade came out of a small vortex in the ground and leapt straight into Yojimbo's hands, where it ignited.

Now armed, all Yojimbo did was charge at the swarm, spinning at the last second before the blade connected, adding some extra momentum to the swing. On connecting, the blade released a large bout of destructive energy, and I was forced to throw my arm over my face.

Once I was able to look again, I did so and gaped at the absence of any of the Gi. That one attack had wiped out the lot of them.

'_Yojimbo always was powerful, kupo. But he usually only takes a fight seriously when faced with such numbers, or is facing a foe who is clearly very powerful.' _Monblanc's voice spoke up.

_Eh, when did you return? _I asked, accepting Montblanc's explanation for what it was: pointing out that Yojimbo is only any good as a last resort.

'_Just now, kupo. You wouldn't have felt it with the backlash from that attack though. I'm fine, I dismissed myself before I could be overwhelmed, kupo.'_

Nice to hear. Never know when I might need to summon the badass Moogle.

I looked up in time to see Yojimbo raise his sword in a salute before dismissing himself, and I turned to face Adrian, who looked rather pale.

"You alright?" I asked.

"I'll be fine." He grunted, pulling out a bottle of Ether and chugging it down like there was no tomorrow.

Once he'd finished the Ether, I could see that some of the colour had already returned to face, so I turned to look at Red, who'd moved to stand before Bugen.

"What is this place?" The lupine asked.

Bugen gave his hearty Santa laugh before turning to face Red, gracing him with an answer.

"Everyone here is a ghost of the Gi tribe." Bugen announced. "Killed in a certain battle."

"A certain battle…?" Red asked in confusion.

"The vengeful spirits of the Gi didn't didn't disappear, and couldn't return to the lifestream…" Bugen continued. "We still have far to go. Ho ho hoooo."

Within that last sentence was a hidden message to leave the topic for the moment, so Red didn't further his enquiries. Shaking my head, frowning, I entered into the next part of the cave and stopped, eyes wide.

"There's **lava **down here?" I asked, loudly.

"Indeed, so mind your step, young one, lest we lose you to a most embarrassing death." Xenor felt the need to say as he walked past me.

Seriously, is this an underground volcano or something? Lava people, molten magma, or whatever you want to call it. I'll be thankful to leave this place, because knowing my luck, if I hang around, I'm going to be thrown off the edge and into the lava.

Yes, a most embarrassing death, considering my other choices. Though I'd rather live than die, so I think I'll just avoid any edges for now.

Xenor turned around and I noticed that all of his eyes widened as he glanced at Cloud. I turned to try and see what had Xenor looking shocked but saw nothing. Well, I saw nothing until Cloud just randomly dropped to the floor, dead.

Ok, what the hell?

It took several seconds for me to figure out what had happened, and once I realized, I sniggered, looking at the space where Cloud's ghost was likely staring at his body in confusion.

"Cloud, how could you let yourself have Doom cast on you?" I laughed at the dead blond's expense. "Though I must thank you for waiting until I was looking before you dropped dead."

Pulling out a Phoenix Down, I applied it to the corpse, quickly backpedalling as Cloud sat up sharply, gasping as his body began to work again. It's an unpleasant experience, and I should know.

"You shouldn't mock the dead like that. I don't poke fun at you when **you're** the dead one." Cloud frowned at me.

"You've never seen me dead." I pointed out, quietly so that Shepard wouldn't hear. "One time you're in a completely different part of the Shinra building, the next time I died was after you were committed to Corel Desert, and me, Red and Yuffie were trying to avoid a similar fate. And the fight with the Turks, you were off fighting a completely different group of Turks."

Cloud hesitated a second.

"You've only died three times?" He asked, looking irritated.

"Well, I died three or four times against the Turks, but it was in the same fight so…"

"Lucky bastard." Cloud groaned. "Since we left Midgar I've been killed by a giant snake, that Jenova creature Sephiroth left for us, and I was killed by a lucky hit from some mugger in Coral Desert. Never mind the being petrified multiple times."

"You have my sympathies." I grunted, helping him up.

"And for your information, I wasn't aware that anything had cast Doom on me." Cloud grumbled.

"That's the whole point." Red mused. "It's supposed to be a silent kill, set to go off at inconvenient times. If Adrian hadn't summoned Yojimbo, then that Doom would have been a crippling blow for us."

"That figures." I muttered.

Shaking my head, I continued down the pathway, making sure to keep my distance from the edge. Lava is a non-revivable death, after all, there's nothing left **to** revive.

The rest of the travel through this cave went uneventfully. We weren't even attacked here. By the time we reached the end of the cave, Bugen felt it was time to expand on what he'd already told us so far.

"As you can see, this cave leads to the back of Cosmo Canyon." He said. "It was unfortunate that the Gi were larger than us. If they attacked through here, we wouldn't have stood a chance."

Red was silent, listening intently.

"Let's move on." Bugen nodded.

The next cave looked similar, until we reached a fork in the cave, where we had a choice of numerous narrow tunnels to go through. The Elder of Cosmo Canyon frowned, obviously trying to remember which one we should go through.

"This one." He eventually said, pointing at a tunnel that looked no different from the rest. Going through, we found an over-sized spider web blocking our path.

"Well, the spiders down here have been busy." Cloud mused, readying his blade.

Without warning Cloud hacked at the web, cutting it down with all the grace of a blind lumber-jack.

"Idiot!" I snarled. "We don't know what made that web. I'd rather not piss off a mutant spider reject!"

"You mean like that one." Red asked, nodding his head towards a very **very** big spider.

"Yes, exactly like that one." I smiled, before freeing my gunblade from its sheath. "Arse-fecking…"

"Language." Both of my guardians chanted, looking at me in annoyance.

Rolling my eyes, I took another look at the spider and shuddered.

"I'm so glad that I'm not arachnophobic." I grunted.

"Strangely enough, so am I." Red commented dryly.

Ok, so have a pissed off giant green spider that wants to kill us. Can we just offer Cloud as a sacrifice as he was the one that destroyed the web?

Judging from the fact that the spider just swiped at **me**, leaving a nasty welt on my right arm, well, all signs point to a big fat no. However, the fight didn't turn into a long battle like I'd expected.

Adrian apparently hated spiders, because he just ran in, stabbed his blade into the spider's gut, and pulled the trigger. And as if **that **wasn't enough,hepumped another shell into the chamber and fired again… And again.

There wasn't much left of the spider after Adrian was finished with it. Grumbling to himself, the Ex-SOLDIER stormed up to Cloud and towered over the shorter ex-SOLDIER, fire burning in his eyes.

"**Never** do that again!" He bellowed. "I hate spiders!"

Leaning back, Cloud grimaced and nodded. Shepard seemed to accept this and stormed back to his position beside Bugen, who gave a Santa laugh.

"Spike." Cloud spoke up, getting my attention. "Your guardian is a nut-job."

"Screw you Strife!"

"Least I'm not scared of spiders."

"I dare you to live through what I have and **not** be scared of them! Too many legs to be natural…"

"Piss off."

"Can't you just feel the testosterone in the air?" I asked sarcastically.

Red nodded sagely.

"I think Adrian feels threatened by this new, **young** upstart." He grinned. "Reminds him that he's getting old."

"Nanaki, I am **not** getting old! I'm in my prime!"

"And there's your evidence. He get's overly defensive."

Avoiding any more spider webs and edges that led to lava pits, the group advanced to the exit of this cavern and paused as Red enquired further about this cave and the battle that took place here.

"This warrior went through the cave, all alone." Bugenhagen told us. "Fighting attackers one after another…"

Red stepped forwards, looking thoughtful as ever.

"Grandpa… That warrior…" he began to ask.

Bugen gave his trademark Santa laugh, cutting off whatever Red had to say, and gestured at the exit.

"We're almost there." He finally said.

Deciding that we weren't going to get anything further out of him at the moment, we exited into a smaller cavern, and what looked to be a dead end. At the opposite end of the cavern from us was a large statue of a demonic looking face.

"That is one ugly looking statue. I can see why it was locked away down here." I remarked, smirking.

Bugen gave a sound of confusion and moved to the front of the group so that he could see what we were talking about. When he caught sight of the statue, his eyes widened in horrified fascination.

"What is this….?" He asked himself sounding horrified.

"Grandpa, is he…!?" Red began to ask, but was cut off.

"After death… The ghosts of the Gi… Like stagnant air… This… **can't **be!" Bugen shook his head.

At his words, the statue began to move, the mouth forming a malicious grin as it leered down at us.

Everyone gasped, taking a step back and readying their methods of attack. I myself had my gunblade out and ready, staring at this moving statue. After several seconds, the statue began to look less like rock, and more like a Gi spirit that was pulling itself from a wall.

Cloud, ever the leader, tensed himself and spoke up, realizing that we had a moment or two before the Gi spirit was able to fight.

"Red, Spike, get ready." He called out.

"Now wait a second, I'm fighting as well." Shepard grunted, his own gunblade ready.

"The hell you are." I snapped.

"Spike's right." Cloud jumped to my defence. "We've fought as a group before, whereas **you** and Xenor are an unknown factor. We don't know how to fight around you and your combat style, while **we** can fight as a cohesive team."

"Besides, somebody needs to protect Grandpa." Red pointed out, diplomatically.

Adrian's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to argue, but a combination of Xenor's hand resting itself on his shoulder, calming him, and the Gi fully emerging from its previous form as a statue forced him to stop.

"Here it comes!" I called out, bringing Cloud's attention back to the Gi.

"What intelligence level do you give it?" Cloud asked, in a tone that almost sounded like he was joking.

"Oh easily a B." I answered.

"Oh, the best kind of foe." Red snarled. "Easily tricked."

Let me explain. As a group, we, as in AVALANCHE, had worked on several strategies. One of the things we worked on was the intelligence level of monsters. 'A' meant sentient or at least understood English, 'B' meant it couldn't understand what was being said, but was intelligent enough to figure out patterns in combat, so if we kept on shouting the names of spells, it'd eventually figure out the pattern, in which case, we'd start saying the spells names, but use a different spell, which confused the foe and sometimes led to some innovative traps.

Needless to say, 'C' grade intelligence meant it was just an average dumbass monster.

The Gi was larger then all the Gi we'd killed previously. Much larger. And that was considering the fact that it was missing everything from the waist down, leaving its spine hanging in the air as it floated above the ground. This Gi didn't wear a cowl, but instead wore an intricate headdress, covered his feathers, marking him as either the shaman or the chieftain of the Gi tribe. He wore also wore a light green cape, and some strange medallion. And lastly, his spear was much better designed then those of its lesser brethren. Rather than being a stone on a stick, this one had a jagged red blade on the end of a metal pole. The opposite end of the blade was covered in feathers.

The Gi Chieftain snapped its fingers, and two flames appeared out of the air and floated around the Gi like a pair of moths to the light.

For several tense seconds, nobody moved, but then Cloud thrust a palm out and released a large amount of magical energies. Shortly after, ice began to form, and with the ice came Shiva.

"Hit and run." Cloud ordered Shiva, who nodded and proceeded to make the ice surge towards the Gi like a tidal wave.

The ice surrounded the Gi and hardened, before shattering, all of the shards flying, each a lethal weapon. Once her attack was over, Shiva dismissed herself, leaving us to face the Gi that was now giving a loud roar in a deep, guttural tone.

At least it wasn't the banshee wail of the smaller Gi.

As a bonus, the two fireballs had been destroyed by the Diamond Dust, so whatever they were good for could never be discovered, unless the Gi managed to summon another pair.

While the Gi was distracted, I took the opportunity to move in attack. After the first slash, the Gi seemed to realize that yelling never did anyone any good and started to defend itself, its spear moving to parry my blows. After I managed to get a third slash in, the Gi decided that it since it wasn't fast enough to defend itself properly, it may as well just take the hits and focus on hitting me instead.

I managed to bring my gunblade up in time to parry the strike, but the force of it almost made me drop my weapon, and I would have had I not thrown myself in the direction that the force of the hit would have sent my blade flying. Reaching out, my palm connected with the ground first, allowing me to vault even further from the Gi and land on my feet.

Ok, this thing is strong. Not so strong that I'll have to focus on dodging each and every attack, but certainly strong enough that I'll need to change my fighting style, as in, I was going to need to use both hands to hold my gunblade.

Sighing, I shifted my feet into an actual stance and placed my right hand underneath my left, griping onto the handle.

In my minds eye, I recognised the stance as that used by Squall in Final Fantasy VIII, but then I also had a flash of white in my mind before I heard Shepard's voice telling me that it was the Shinaré style. Good for power, but the most focused on aspect of the stance was defence, allowing the user to defend them self with the least amount of effort.

Yeah, I prefer my usual laid back stance; it feels more comfortable and is harder to read the moves of. That and it leaves my other hand free to punch or do whatever with. But alas, desperate times, ey? Besides which, with this thing, I doubt it'll have any better of a time reading my moves even if I told it what I was doing in advance.

Raising my gunblade so that it was horizontal over my shoulder, but not resting on it, I bent low and moved in towards the Gi. About halfway to the oversized spirit, I began to swing the blade in an overhead arc. I judged the distance properly, and as I reached the Gi, the gunblade connected.

No time to follow up the attack, since the Gi was already swinging its spear in retaliation. Jumping back out of its range, I focused on my Materia and built up the energies required.

"Blizzara." I grunted, and watched in satisfaction as the freak of nature was blasted by several icicles.

Red followed up in the attack with a Fira and then Cloud joined in with a Thundara. Whether or not it was planned, the order of the attacks made it worse for the Gi as the fire had melted the ice but didn't evaporate the water, and then, just as with the Air Buster way back when, thunder meets water on Gi equals much pain for the Gi.

The Gi roared in pain and started to move towards Red, readying its spear. Red saw it coming and moved out of the way, but the Gi kept on following Red, clearly wanting to do at least **some** damage before moving onto better things.

In an effort to distract it, I launched several salvos of plain old fire at the Gi. By the fifth fireball, the Gi finally turned to a new target, namely me. Smirking, I gave it the finger and watched as it gave its bellow.

I wonder if it realized that I'd insulted it.

The Gi approached, and I moved backwards, keeping my eye on it rather than turn and lose track of where it was. After a while, I fired several shots at it, figuring that it was a nice, safe way to annoy it some more. And if the Gi happened to die, which was doubtful, them power to me.

Eventually, my back hit a wall. Sensing that I was cornered, the Gi approached even more rapidly and reared its spear arm back. Frowning, I watched the Gi as it did so, waiting. It thrust its spear forwards with enough force to skewer me.

I decided I was having none of that, and jumped up the wall and then off the wall sending me flying over the Gi's head, which a took the opportunity to slash at. And as an added bonus, the spear jammed itself into the wall and got stuck, leaving me a chance to do what I do best.

Point and laugh. Loudly.

Another scream from the Gi, and Cloud joined me as we mindlessly hacked at the currently helpless Gi while Red barraged it with Thundara after Thundara. However, all good things had to come to an end, and thus, so did this. The Gi managed to get its spear unstuck from the wall, and swung its other arm around, managing to connect with Cloud's face.

The blond staggered back, with a grunt, and I took several steps back, frowning at the Gi as it tried for take two of impaling me.

Only it was interrupted by a blue beam on energy that collided with it. Cloud had certainly gotten the timing down with his Blade Beam.

Shaking off the shock of being hurt in such a manner, the Gi began to hurl Fira after Fira and Cloud and me.

Swearing, I managed to avoid the worst of the barrage, but the moment one of the spells hit me, every spell after it managed to connect, sending me to the floor, cursing my ill fortune. Looking up, I could see that Cloud had managed to avoid all but the last Fira sent his way, and managed to counter with a Blizzara.

When the Gi managed to dodge the spell, we knew that it had learnt which spell did what, so we did the natural thing to do in such a situation.

"Thundara." Cloud grunted.

The Gi made a move that would have dodged the thunder spell, but in the end it only put itself further into the path of Cloud's Fira, burning it.

Chuckling at the sounds of confusion from the Gi, I cast Cura on myself and stood up, taking in the scene. Red was sending spell after spell at the Gi, which served to further annoy the spirit. Cloud was busy avoiding the Gi's spear. After a brief struggle, Cloud managed to push the Gi away from himself, and positioned himself to renew his attack.

"Red!" I called out. "We'll distract it, prepare to finish it!"

I heard a shouted affirmative.

Readying myself, I took a place at Cloud's side and we looked at the Gi.

"I don't like that spear." He commented, idly.

"No." I agreed. "It's an ugly abomination."

The Gi roared again and we both charged. Cloud ducked under a vicious swing from the spear and jammed his sword into the Gi's ribs. While the Gi was distracted by the over-sized sword stuck in its ribs, I grabbed the arm that was holding the spear and twisted it into an arm-lock.

"Red, NOW!" I yelled.

I watched as Red charged towards us, a red glow surrounding him. He collided with the Gi and the energy from the Blood Fang limit amplified the power behind the attack, sending the Gi flying.

Yet I was still holding its arm.

Blinking, I stared at the arm in confusion, as it dropped its spear and hung limp. I was about to drop the thing and check on whether or not the Gi was beaten, when the arm suddenly made a grab for me.

Yelping, I threw the arm into the air and cast Blizzara on it, watching as it was frozen solid while still in the air. It hit the ground.

It shattered.

As if it sensed the complete destruction of its arm, the Gi gave a loud roar and smashed its remaining fist into Red, who slid back with a yelp. Then it followed through with a Fira to Cloud's face, sending him to the ground.

Cursing, I charged in, swinging Talon. Again I timed it right and managed to hit it, this time on its still existent arm. A loud growl emitted from the Gi and it managed to grab me, and quite literally toss me over its shoulder like I was just a nuisance.

Getting to his feet, Red growled at the Gi and bent low, before releasing another limit. This time, rather than charging at the Gi, the room went dark. For a moment I was left wondering whether anything was going to happen, but then the room was lit up by bright bursts of power that kept slamming into the Gi.

When the room finally turned to normal, the Gi dropped to the floor and seemed to slowly fade into nothing.

Well, a Stardust Ray finish… hell of a way to end it. When did he learn to use Stardust ray anyway?

Once on my feet, I flipped my gunblade in the usual after-battle victory session and sheathed it, watching from the corner of my eye as Red howled his victory and Cloud spun his blade around, before he too returned his weapon to its harness.

"That was epic." I commented.

As if it had been waiting for the death of the Gi, the wall where the statue had stood crumbled, revealing an exit to the outside world.

"Thank you, Cloud, Spike. Because of you, we survived." Beganhagen spoke up, clearly impressed. "Nanaki, you have grown strong, too."

"Oh yeah?" Red asked, small smile tugging at his lips.

"Now I know that it wasn't a mistake bringing you here…" The old man continued. "Come, I have something I want to show you. Right over here."

He began to move through the new exit, and everyone followed.

Outside, night had fallen. Red hopped up onto several rocks and looked up at the top of the cliff that took up the majority of the view, a small gasp exiting his lips.

"This is…"

Began came up so that he was stood nearby, and began talking.

"…The warrior who fought against the Gi." He nodded. "He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canton But he was never able to return to town…

The Elder moved closer and pointed at the statue on top of the cliff, looking serious.

"Look, Nanaki. Look at your father, at the warrior, Seto."

"That…" Red gasped. "That's…. Seto…?"

"Seto continued to fight the Gi tribe here." Bugen informed us. "…To protect this Canyon. Even after the Gi's poisonous arrows turned his body to stone…. Even after they ran away… Seto, continued to protect us. And he continues to protect us, even now."

"Even now…" Red repeated softly, looking up at his father.

""You thought that he was a coward and ran away. But he, alone, risked his life to protect Cosmo Canyon. That is your father, Seto."

"That…. That is Seto?" Red mumbled, turning to Bugenhagen.

"Did mother know?"

Bugan gave his Santa laugh before answering.

"She knew." He said. "The two of them make me promise to keep this cave shut. They asked me to seal it myself and not tell a soul. They said we should forget about this cave."  
Red was silent, head bowed.

Bugen turned to Cloud and I, and I noticed that Adrian and Xenor were absent for the first time.

"Cloud, Spike… Would you…"

"Of course." I interrupted, guessing what he was asking. "Let's go Cloud."

The blond nodded, and we both turned and walked back into the cave where we'd fought the Gi. Both Adrian and Xenor were there, waiting for us. They seemed to expect the absence of Bugen and Red, for they didn't ask anything about it. Shepard did give us an odd look though.

At first I thought nothing of it, but when Xenor's elbow connected with Adrian's ribs, I knew something was up.

Adrian cleared his throat and looked at us.

"I owe you two an apology." He admitted. "Mostly you, Spike, but you as well Strife."

Both Cloud and myself gave the Ex-SOLDIER a look of confusion, and he sighed before elaborating.

"I underestimated your fighting abilities. I figured neither of you had any business coming down here when you hadn't the strength to defend yourself. I was wrong, both of you, and Nanaki as well, you've shown me that you are more than capable. Hell, I'm shocked you even got a picture perfect Shinaré Stance, when you so adamantly told me that you never planned on using it."

"So you won't act like a mother-hen anymore?" I asked, hopefully.

"Screw that, kid!" Shepard spat. "If you come home with any more permanent scarring, I'll stop you from ever leaving the Canyon, even if I have to chain you to a rock myself!"

"Oh for the love off..." I muttered, throwing my arms in the air.

Xenor started laughing at my plight and Cloud managed a small smirk before grunting.

"Better you than me."

"And what is that bandage on your arm?" Shepard asked, pointing. "That wasn't there earlier!"

"Oh, that's just covering my new tattoo." I grinned, enjoying the look of shock on Adrian's face.

"A **tattoo**?! I didn't give you permission to have a tattoo!"

"It's my body!"

"And I'm one of your legal guardians until you reach 18, which won't be for a couple of years yet, **kid! **So I get a say over what you do to yourself and getting a tattoo is one of them!"

"I repeat, **my** body, not yours! I can do what I like to it, so long as it ain't emo-cutting or suicide or drugs, all three of which I wouldn't do anyway!"

Xenor continued to laugh at me and the mother-hen, and Cloud just sat there sniggering at me.

"Xenor, back me up!" Shepard called out to the Vortigaunt.

"No, Xenor is on my side!" I countered.

Xenor just continued laughing at us.

* * *

AN:::

First off, hope you all had a good Christmas. Yes, it's a tad late to say it, but this is my first update of the New Year, my New Year's Resolution being to try and make the whole season's idea work, so sue me.

For a picture of Montblanc, look for the link in my profile.

One thing I have to say about this chapter. I don't like it. I felt like during the (Gi Nattak or whatever it was) called fight, I emphasised on Spike a little too much. I'll try to avoid that in future, so put down those pitchforks. Problem was, I had all these cool scenes in my mind, but I couldn't get them to actually fit in with the rest of the fight. And if people start complaining that Spike fights a little too well, remember that story-wise, Spike has had at least a couple of months of proverbial 'off-screen' time. Possibly more.

Hey, I suppose I should be thankful that I had Red deal the finishing blow with his limit, rather than the previously planned Spike learns a new limit that ends the fight.

And yes, I say 'off-screen' moments, because I don't write what Spike does every second of every day. Such off-screen moments include might include why Spike's enemy skill Materia actually has enemy skills to it. I'm not about to describe what might well have been a small battle that lasted two seconds for the sake of saying 'I know can cast magic breath/trine/whatever'. Bosses make an exception, but some skills would likely leave no body left if hit by, so not all skills are learnt through being attacked by them. As time goes, Spike's enemy skill Materia will just begin learning skills by itself. Actually witnessing a skill auto learns that particular skill, but otherwise, I really can't justify Spike learning the likes of Shadow Flare and actually having a body left if it hit him. And White Wind and Big Guard? I can't actually justify having the team cast manipulate on a monster to learn a skill? How would they even know that the monster even has said learnable skills? They hardly have a strategy guide to peak at.

And while you're here, in my profile, I have written down a rant. This rant involves an issue that, well, has me ranting. If you want to read the full thing, just go to my profile, but the summery:

I do not tolerate being told that my spellings are wrong just because I didn't write a word in the American way. I'm British, and I'm proud of it. I will not write in the American style of English, especially not when I'm told, in such an oh-so subtle manner, that because I'm writing it in Queen's English, that my spelling is shit.

I'll say no more, as I would probably end up writing pages upon pages off my rant on the subject. If I have a genuine typo, then it's ok to point it out, but having every single word spelt in the British way criticized as a typo is not ok. It's downright insulting. That's all I'll say on the matter.


	25. Back on the Trail

Chapter 24: Back on the Trail

For once, and hopefully for the last time, I was driving the buggy **slowly**. Yeah, real shocker there, but even though the trees were far and few between, I still wasn't risking my safety right now, not when I was aware that the rest of AVALANCHE would wring my neck. It turns out that nearly all of AVALANCHE is secretly chocoholic.

While I was driving, the rest of AVALANCHE was stuffing their faces with chocolate cake. **My **chocolate cake. Maybe I should just go back to breakneck speeds regardless. It would teach them against eating cake without me.

Well, in all honesty, Yuffie wasn't eating. She'd had a considerable amount of alcohol to drink, and was now extremely, hopelessly hung-over.

She was moaning badly enough that Aeris had cast silence on her to shut out the pleas for attention coming from the brat, though to be fair… she deserved it for drinking so much when she was clearly a lightweight. I'd recommended casting sleep, but apparently that would just be rude. As if casting silence **wasn't** rude…

I find it amusing that she was still trying to moan, even though no sound was coming out of her mouth. Apparently, you can still hear yourself when silenced, so Yuffie was trying to get us to give her sympathy, not even aware that we couldn't actually hear her.

You want to know why Yuffie is suffering a hangover… Oh and why the rest of AVALANCHE has cake?

* * *

The previous evening

* * *

We were sat around the Cosmo Candle, staring into the flame. Morning had come and gone, Cloud and I had the chance to tell the rest of AVALANCHE what had happened last night. With the information, came the knowledge that Red had even more of a reason to stay here than before and thus the chances of his joining us were diminished greatly.

And we generally did nothing for most of the day, since we still couldn't leave due to the fact that our buggy was still being repaired.

When evening came, we had all met up at the flame and sat our asses down, for lack of anything better to do, when Barret got a text on his PHS.

"The buggies fixed, so we can go now." Barret finally said.

Cloud nodded absently, before looking at each of us in turn.

"Shall we get going?" He asked.

Everyone nodded, but for the moment made no move to get up.

"So this is it, Red…" Aeris murmured.

"That's just the way it goes." Barret grunted, before looking down and talking as if Red were in front of him. "...You came in handy at times..."

Finally, we all got to our feet and moved towards the exit of Cosmo Canyon, but were stopped by a shout.

"Wait for me!"

Turning, we spotted Red leaping down the stairs to stand before us, panting slightly.

"I'm coming too!" he finally declared.

Cloud gave a sound of confusion, turning to look at Bugenhagen, who floated down to us.

"Please look after Nanaki." Bugen asked of us.

"What happened?" Cloud asked.

"I think I grew up a little, that's what happened!" Red announced.

Well, I'm glad that he's sticking with us. I noticed that Bugen had already floated away, giving his Santa laugh. Once everyone had expressed their happiness that Red was staying with us, we turned to leave.

Once again, we stopped because of somebody yelling for us to 'wait, Shiva damn it!' Turning, we spied Adrian charging towards us. He slid to a halt and glared at each and every one of us before talking.

"Kid." He finally spoke. "There's something you need to see."

"This isn't some lame attempt to prevent me from leaving is it?" I asked, sceptically.

"What? No!" Adrian frowned, looking annoyed at the accusation. "And even if it was, I wouldn't be asking all of your companions to follow us. I'd like to see someone try to tell the entire lot of you not to go anywhere. I'd then very much enjoy seeing what they look like afterwards."

"Right… And what do you have to show me that you couldn't earlier? And how does it involve the entire lot of us?" I asked; arms crossed.

Rolling his eyes, Adrian crossed his own arms.

"I'll carry you there if I have to." He threatened. "Save yourself the embarrassment."

_He wouldn't… would he?_

I took a good look at him and I sighed.

_He would, and he'd be amused by it._

"Fine. Lead the way."

Smirking in victory, Adrian turned a marched off towards our home. Shrugging, I followed after him, aware that the rest of AVALANCHE was following in curiosity. As we walked, I heard the tone that told me that I had received a text, which was accompanied by a slight vibration from the PHS. Flipping open my phone, I read the message quickly.

**Did the math.**

**Enjoy.**

**Jade.**

Slipping my PHS back into my pocket, I frowned in confusion. Did the math for what? What, did Jade finally do that algebra homework that she left for years? That was sarcasm by the way…

The entire group managed to fit into the living room of my home with ease, and I looked at Arian, eyebrow ridge raised.

"So what is it you want me to see?" I asked.

Adrian smirked and pointed to the doorway that led to the kitchen. I looked, and both eyebrow ridges were raised in shock when Xenor exited, holding the biggest damned chocolate cake I've ever seen. I felt Adrian drape his arm over my shoulder.

"Happy birthday, kiddo." He grunted.

"Indeed Young One." Xenor grinned. "As the humans would say: Happy Sweet Sixteen."

So, that was what math Jade had done. She'd counted out how long I'd been here and compared the calendars of Earth and Gaia. I'm… giving a genuine smile… I don't know whether Jade could hear my thoughts, but thank you.

"Ooh!" Yuffie giggled, slinging her arm across my other shoulder, and my smile faded in favour of an annoyed glare. "You didn't tell any of us it was your birthday!"

"I forgot." I explained, slipping into the most natural lie I could think off.

'_Or rather, you haven't bothered doing the math yourself, leaving Jade to do it on a whim to find out that it was in fact your birthday.' _Spike whispered in my ear. _'Now go get some of that cake.'_

In the end, we stayed an extra night here in Cosmo Canyon. No, it wasn't a party, just a hot meal, **lots** of cake, and beer. Quite a significant amount of beer, as on this continent, 16 is the legal drinking age. Thus Adrian, going behind Xenor's back, went and brought out a couple of crates full of bottles of beer.

And Yuffie proved just how much of a lightweight that she was, by getting completely drunk after her third bottle. I didn't follow her lead, and only had one bottle of the stuff.

Still, Xenor proved that he was as good at baking as he was at cooking, and the cake was proof of that. My god… I'm in heaven, and it's made of chocolate. Thick, dark chocolate. This chocolate cake is heaven, and Xenor is clearly the god of this heaven.

I made this clear when I managed to catch him in a bear-hug, laughing like a madman.

"You are a God amongst us mere mortals!" I declared, loudly.

The Vortigaunt flinched at the volume of my voice.

"Are you drunk already?" He asked, trying and failing to look stern.

"No, haven't touched any beer yet." I shook my head.

Xenor rolled his eyes, untangling himself from my arms.

"And what makes me a divine being?"

"You are the single most awesome chef in the world!"

Again, he flinched at the volume of my voice, and I finally got the hint and lowered it.

"Not only are your meals the greatest meals I've ever eaten, but that cake is…" I trailed off, unable to find words that adequately described my feelings on the cake.

The Vortigaunt chucked, taking a bite from a slice he'd cut for himself.

"It isn't that good." He told me. "This one was rather disappointed with it, but didn't have the time to start anew, and this one refuses to buy the pre-made food… the additives disagree with me…" He sounded a tad embarrassed at the last part, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It tastes infinitely better than any shop bought cake." I grinned. "Unless you've secretly put in some addictive drug?" I joked, jerking my thumb at Cloud who was waiting impatiently while Barret cut himself a slice… painstakingly slowly.

Xenor stared at the two humans, chuckling slightly.

"Never understood why this one's cooking was so popular." Xenor admitted, now looking very embarrassed. "It's not like cooking is a hobby for this one, just a means of having something to eat without the additives that mainstream food insists on having."

"And yet, you make food taste better than those 'additive-riddled messes'."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." The Vortigaunt gave me a mock-stern look. "It's no better than the cake last year or the year before that."

"Stating a fact." I grinned, turning to get myself another slice of the cake. "And if I didn't say this last year or any year before that, then I must have been stupid."

The night had to end eventually, and the next morning, what remained of the cake was divided up between us and stored in our respective storage Materia. Seeing as the moment we climbed into the buggy, the non-hung over members of AVALANCHE were already eating the chocolaty goodness that was my birthday cake, they didn't want to wait for a more appropriate time to eat.

The odd thing was when Adrian pulled me aside. For a moment, I thought it would be to start doing more of his mother hen act, but a look into his eyes prevented any protest I might have, and made me listen.

"Watch yourself, kid." He grunted. "Especially around the blonde. Something about him ain't right."

"Cloud's fine." I defended the swordsman. "We've been working together since Midgar."

"Just watch yourself, Spike… I can't explain it, but I have a bad feeling about Strife."

Rolling my eyes, I nodded, to which he let me go. I felt his eyes watching me as I climbed into the buggy, before he walked off,

Of course, the moment the key was in the ignition, I was already be threatened by my greedy teammates, who promised all sorts of pain and agony if I dared to go too fast. The only reason they say that? Because they want to eat their share of the cake without flying all over the place.

Truthfully, it wasn't because of the threats that I decided I would drive slowly though. No, I drive slowly for Yuffie's sake. She looked kind of pathetic, all hunched over in anguish from her hangover. Even if her moans for sympathy were getting on my nerves, I wasn't about to speed along and make it any worse for her.

"You really are a lightweight." I couldn't help rubbing in her face.

"Shut up." The ninja groaned. "Too damn loud."

"You should have thought about that before getting yourself hung over." Red pointed out.

"That was the first time I've drunk anything alcoholic that wasn't sake." Yuffie defended herself, feebly.

"And you didn't think to restrain yourself. That was strong stuff." Cloud frowned down at the brat.

"Alcohol comes in different strengths?"

"Yea." I nodded, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. "Even I know that, and I barely touch alcohol."

Yuffie gave a groan, before slamming her eyes shut as the buggy left the shadows I been driving though.

"Too bright." She moaned.

"Not a lot I can do about it." I said, pulling out a hi-potion and holding it out behind me for her to take. "Here, this should at least help."

She took it and gulped down the substance almost greedily, the medicine helping, not just with the pain from the sensitivity to the light, but also the thirst that was a common effect of being hung over. It also had the added benefit of repairing any damage to the liver, I think.

You know, I don't know whether the damage that alcohol does to the liver would count as artificial or not. Is it recognised as damage done through poison?

Bah, let the thinkers think on that.

It was half an hour later that Yuffie began whining again and promptly had silence cast upon her in order to save the rest of us from having to put up with the non-stop whining.

Well, it was simple, and it worked, so why the hell not, ey? As I had said before, I suggested casting sleep on her, but apparently it would be rude to do so, even though it would probably be a mercy for her. That way, she could be sleeping and avoid the pain that came from the hangover.

Due to my slow driving, it was hours before we reached a small town that was perched at the base of some particularly nasty looking mountains. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the sight of the town, forehead creased in thought.

"That place looks familiar." He murmured.

"It could just be one of those towns that happens to look like every other town." I pointed out.

"It's not just the town, the mountains as well."

"Our next stop then?" I asked.

Cloud considered it for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, to that town."

Nodding my own head, I turned the wheel to redirect the buggy. Now that we were looking at the town directly, I could see that there was a narrow pathway leading up the mountain behind the town. And now that Tifa was looking, she frowned in thought as well.

"What town is that?" She asked.

"Dunno; that's why we're going there." I answered. "We'll never know anything unless we try to find out."

I smoothly parked the buggy just outside the town limits and pulled the key from the ignition. Jumping out, I could see that the town was a homely looking place, though for whatever reason, a rusted pickup truck had been dumped at the entrance to the town itself, and left there.

"Impossible." Tifa gasped, looking at the truck.

"Yeah, it should be impossible for people to leave scrap at the entrance to a town. It really puts off the tourism." I muttered. "Nothing impossible about it though."

"Not the truck." Cloud snapped, looking pale. "The town in general. This town is impossible."

The rest of us looked at the two, in various states of confusion. Tifa looked around frantically, running to the town centre, Cloud following at a more casual pace, though he looked tense.

"What was that aboot?" Cait asked, scratching the top of his head.

"You tell me." I muttered.

"What, is it not sensible to go and ask them what's wrong?" Red queried.

Ah, a very good point. The rest of us all followed Cloud and Tifa to the town square, where both looked like they'd seen ghosts.

"What's wrong?" Aeris asked, being the most diplomatic of us.

"This town…" Cloud murmured. "It's Nibelheim."

Everyone blinked, confused.

"This was all supposed to be burnt down, right?" Tifa asked, unsure.

"I thought so." Cloud muttered.

"Then why? My house is still here too…"

"The hell's goin' on!?" Barret bellowed. "This a dream or somethin'?"

"I'm not lying!" Cloud snapped, eyes haunted. "I remember… the intense heat of the flames…"

"Then how is this possible?" Cait asked, accent thickening in confusion.

"Shinra rebuilt the town maybe?" Red suggested.

"But why go to the trouble of rebuilding it exactly as it was. Even the rusted truck back there is the same." Cloud questioned.

"A cover-up maybe?" Yuffie pointed out, quietly, hand pressed against the side of her head. "No evidence of Shinra ever doing anything wrong."

That is a good point, one that had Cloud's eyes narrowing in barely suppressed fury.

"Who are the dark monks of woe?" I asked, pointing at the surprisingly large number of people stumbling around clad in black hooded robes.

"I… have no idea." Cloud frowned, perplexed. "If they're the residents, then why would they wear robes?"

"Well, let's ask one." Aeris suggested, marching towards the closest dark monk of woe. "Excuse me?"

The robed figure turned to look at Aeris, staggering as if he were drunk as he did so. He took a long look at Aeris, before turning away from her.

"Mas…ter…" He ground out, sounding… hollow.

Aeris shook her head, and turned to walk back to the group, but hesitated as something caught her eye.

"He has a number tattooed onto his hand." She mused aloud. "Looks like… Number 16."

At the sound of the number on his hand, the robed figure looked at Aeris, head tilted in expectance. The Cetra shook her head, and the strange man turned away yet again.

"Wasn't there a man with a number tattooed on his hand back in Midgar?" Cloud asked.

"I wouldn't know." I shrugged.

"Yeah, in the pipe." Cloud answered his own question. "Back in Sector Five."

"In the pipe?" I hummed, thinking back. "Ah, when you were in the pipe, I was checking what had drawn a crowd. A small crater and a number of Shinra goons who fell off the walkways before we entered the Reactor."

The swordsman frowned a moment, before nodding as he remembered that I hadn't been with him.

"What caused the crater?" He asked.

"A gil coin. I'd assume that it fell from the same place as the bodies."

I wasn't about to admit that I had flicked it off the railing myself, before we'd even started to battle Shinra security. Nor that, now that I'm actually remembering what happened way back when, that I'd been about to spit over the railings when Tifa had stopped me.

Wow, has it really been that long since we were in Midgar that I need to actually focus on my time there to remember the smaller details?

Apparently so.

"What number was the pipe-dweller then?" I shrugged at last.

"Can't recall. It didn't seem important at the time." Cloud answered after a moment of thinking.

"Se…Roth…" A robed man moaned, grabbing onto my shoulder.

I flinched away from the man, giving a hard shove as his breath insulted my nose.

"Personal bubble, buddy." I hissed, watching the man stumble backwards, before wondering somewhere else.

"Wonder if the residents of the town know anything aboot these people." Cait said at last.

"Or about the history of the town they're currently living in." Tifa added.

"We might as well book into the hotel while we're at it. Yuffie would probably prefer to sleep than suffer through her hangover." I pointed out.

Yuffie gave a moan in agreement.

After some agreement from everyone else, we marched into the hotel and rung the bell to bring the owner to the desk. The owner was a chubby man, who looked far too serious than was healthy. He took a look at all of us before his gaze lingered on Red.

"No pets." He huffed.

Red opened his mouth to protest his new status as a pet, but I beat him to it.

"He's not a pet, sir." I put on my most absent minded tone of voice. "He's my seeing eye guide."

The hotel owner looked bemused, crossing his arms and snorting.

"He's not your seeing eye guide." He grunted. "He's not on a lead."

"That's the new Shinra science at work, sir." I smartly replied. "The way of the future. No need for a lead to have him guide me. He's the result of Shinra research into telepathy. So long as he is near me, he psychically sends me an image of my surroundings."

The owner blinked in surprise, gaping at me as he tried to find a fault with what I'd said.

"I've never heard of Shinra releasing such products." He finally said.

"Well, no sir. This here is the prototype. Gotta find the flaws before releasing them to the general public."

The owner grumbled, before nodding.

"Fine." He finally grunted. "That'll be 500 gil for the whole lot of ya."

After being given the money, he handed Cloud the keys, and after giving me one final look of distrust, went into the back rooms.

"So I've been promoted from guardian of Cosmo Canyon to your 'seeing eye guide' have I?" Red asked, sarcastically.

"How else was I going to get him to let you stay?" I defended myself, smirking. "Now come along seeing eye guide, we must help Yuffie to her room."

Red snorted, turning to follow me and Cloud as we helped Yuffie stumble to her room. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. Cait was volunteered to stay with Yuffie, and the rest of us went out to explore Nibelheim.

Cloud instantly moved around the large water tower towards a small house, eyes narrowed. I followed after him in curiosity. He was moving with a purpose, his eyes fixed onto the one house. It wasn't a large house; in fact, it looked like it was the smallest in the town.

At the door, the blond paused, scanning the wall to the side. After a moment, he began to push aside some of the weeds that were trying to scale the wall.

"It's here." Cloud whispered to himself.

"What is?" I asked, trying to see over his shoulder.

"I scratched this onto the wall when I was a kid." The blond moved aside, letting me see.

There, scratched onto the wall was a cartoony image of a wolf. I suppose from the perspective of a child, it would have looked like it was howling to the moon, but to me, it looked like it was drowning. I said as much to the swordsman, who shrugged.

"I was seven at the time." He admitted. "To me, it was the greatest work of art I'd ever done."

"Shinra did their homework, if they really did rebuild this place." I grunted, staring at the image.

Cloud nodded his head before pushing open the door and walking into the building. Feeling a grin of amusement at Cloud's lack of subtlety tugging at my lips, I followed after him. Inside, Cloud was looking around the place, frown lines marring his forehead.

"Can I help you?" A woman asked, standing at the corner of the building that had all of the kitchen stuff.

"I lived in this house until I was fourteen." Cloud said, walking up to the woman. He began to say something else but changed his mind. "No, but this town was burned down."

The woman stared at Cloud, eyes wide, and then out of nowhere, her hand met his face with a loud smack. The blonde's head twisted around from the force of the woman's slap, and he blinked in shock.

"Are you sick… saying those things?" She snarled. "Get out of here!"

Cloud nodded, numbly, turning around and exiting the building, hand against his cheek.

"That went rather well." I said, sarcastically.

"It could have gone much better." Cloud mumbled.

"So this was your home?"

"It looked exactly the same as I remember it. It even had the same rugs."

On exiting the home, we were confronted by another man in a black robe, this one doing a reasonably good job at sounding like a zombie.

"Must…go…to…Re…uni…on…" He groaned, before stumbling off somewhere.

Cloud managed to catch a glimpse of the man's hand.

Hmm…" He grunted. "Number '6'."

"Who are these guys?" I asked, watching the man stumble into a building with a sign over the door stating that the building was a shop.

"I'll tell you when I find out myself." Cloud frowned, before walking up to a nearby resident, walking his dog.

"This town was supposed to have been burnt down five years ago. What the hell is going on?" The swordsman demanded.

"Sir, you don't have to say such awful things." The man blinked. "I was born and raised in this town. What you say never happened."

Cloud looked like he was about to press the issue, but I pulled him towards the shop, pointing out that we can never have too many potions or hi-potions. It was a lame excuse, but I doubted that Cloud beating up random people would get us anywhere.

Turned out that Barret was already doing the supply shopping; so there was little else to do here. But before we could leave, Cloud spotted another robed man.

"He has a tattoo of the number '12'." Cloud pointed out, easily seeing the number.

"Can…you…hear? The…voice…of…Se…phi…ro…th…."

Cloud's frown became more pronounced at the mention of Sephiroth, but the man continued to babble on, making it clear that we wouldn't get much answers from him. We left shortly after that.

Minutes later, we bumped into Tifa, who was preparing to go into the house that was once hers, before the town was burnt to the ground. She was clearly nervous, so she asked us if we'd go in with her.

Inside, Tifa became lost in her memories, once it was made clear that other than the absence of any family photos, everything was as she remembered it. Including a dent in the wall where she'd accidently kicked it when first learning martial arts.

A loud bang in the kitchen had us rushing in, only to find yet another robed man. The noise was his knocking over a saucepan, which had made a loud bang as it had connected with the varnished floor.

"…Must…..get…it… and bring…to…Se…phi…roth… Then… become…one…with…Se…phi…roth…"

"This guy's number '5'." I said, grabbing the man's hand to actually get it still enough to read the number.

"Want to look upstairs?" Cloud asked Tifa, looking towards the stairs.

The martial artist hesitated, before giving a nod. Slowly, we moved upstairs, and stood on the landing. A shuffling sound came from one of the two rooms, so we entered, already suspecting what we'd find.

Sure enough, inside were two more of the hooded men, lurching around as if they owned the place. Actually, they might do, seeing as we haven't met anybody in this house that could be the owner.

"He has a tattoo of the number '11'." Cloud mumbled, looking at the closest one.

"Must…go…Reun…ion…"

"They keep mentioning that. What Reunion?" I asked, sourly.

"Tell me when you find out."

"Tattoo number '4'" Tifa spoke up, standing next to the other robed man, who looked at her curiously at the mention of his number.

"Where…are…you..? Great…Se…ph…roth…"

"With all these guys lumbering around, I think it's safe to say we're back on Sephiroth's trail." I frowned.

"Maybe." Cloud said, also frowning. "But what do these men have to do with him?"

"The way they're going on, it's like they're dedicated to him." Tifa bowed her head in thought. "Every one of them calls him 'Great' Sephiroth."

"They revere him, and worship the ground he walks on… The main question is what is Reunion? They mention that just as much as they mention Sephiroth." Cloud asked.

"Probably nothing good, if it involves Sephiroth." I pointed out.

"Just another thing to prevent him from doing then." Cloud concluded.

I shook my head, wry grin on my face.

"Have you noticed that nothing seems to go smoothly for us?"

"Yes… I blame you jinxing us." Cloud smirked, before walking into the room that belonged to Tifa.

I shrugged, following Tifa who followed Cloud into her room. Inside, Cloud was staring at the massive piano.

"Wait, I definitely remember playing this piano, so why didn't to get burnt?" He asked, confused.

"If they recreated a scratch and a dent in the walls, you don't think they'll just replace the piano?" I asked, amused.

"He has a point there, Cloud." Tifa shook her head, also amused at the blond moment from the swordsman.

Sighing, Cloud looked out the window. In the background, barely visible, was the Shinra Mansion.

"I wonder if that's the original Shinra Mansion, or if they just rebuilt that, as well." Cloud mused.

"Do you remember whether it caught alight or not?" Tifa asked.

"I don't think so." The blond shook his head. "But with the size of the fire, it wouldn't surprise me if it had managed to spread to the mansion after I followed Sephiroth to the reactor."

The mansion, from what I could see, was a dark and foreboding building, with a gothic look to it. It wouldn't have been out of place if it was placed into the Victorian era.

"We'll have to search it anyway." Cloud finally said. "Might as well go now."

It was a sound plan of action. On the way to the mansion, we encountered Aeris, who joined with us for exploring the old, decrepit building. Or at least, what looked like an old and decrepit building.

At the gates, we encountered another two of the cloaked men, both wailing like banshees.

"Woooooooow…. He's… calling… Sephiroth… is… calling…" One of them shouted, before he fell to the ground, giggling.

The other seemed a bit saner, though only marginally.

"The…Great…Se…Phi…Roth…is…near…. In…side…inside…the Mansion… Urrrrrrgh… the great…..Sephi…roth." He mumbled, head twitching.

We didn't bother to check their numbers, because what the second had just said was enough to over-ride any thoughts we had.

"Sephiroth is in the mansion?" Cloud repeated, tensing.

"Looks like I was right when I said we were back on his trail." I muttered, hand drifting inside my coat, resting on my gunblade.

A grunt came from Cloud's throat, and he began marching towards the entrance to the mansion, pulling the Buster Sword free of its harness and resting it on his shoulder, ready to be used if the need arose. Shaking my head, I followed the swordsman, Aeris and Tifa close behind.

The inside of the mansion was dusty, though it was clear that the building had been used recently, as the dust covered floor had footsteps, leading towards the stairs. Cloud obviously noticed the footprints as well, because he made to follow them, but was held back by Tifa.

"We should explore the rest of the mansion first." Tifa reasoned. "For all we know, those footprints could lead to a trap."

At first, it appeared that Cloud was planning on ignoring her rationality, but he then appeared to deflate and nod.

"Fine." He consented. "Let's split up and look for clues as to where Sephiroth is hiding… footprints not included."

'Let's split up and look for clues'? Gee, that sounds oddly familiar, coming from a blond leader…

"Sure thing, Fred." I muttered, being rewarded by a confused look from the swordsman.

"It would probably be safe to assume that the footprints lead to the secret basement that you told us about, so when we're done, we'll meet up there?" Aeris spoke up.

"Sounds like a plan." Cloud agreed, before picking a direction and marching.

Following Cloud's lead, I picked a random door and moved through it, curious. The room was small, and felt even smaller by the huge piano taking up nearly all of what little space there was. Like the rest of the building, the piano was dusty, making it appear more grey than black. Pressing down on one of the keys, a flat tone was my reward.

Even to my untrained ears, this piano was clearly out of tune.

Shaking my head, I scanned the rest of the room for anything of importance. Nothing except a lot of paper scattered over the floor. The paper was yellow with age, the ink, brown instead of black. Must have been written upon by a cheep biro; unless black ink usually turns brown after how ever long these papers have been here.

Just to appease my curiosity, I scooped up one of the sheets of paper and read the contents aloud.

"Blah blah blah, fools don't understand my genius… blah blah blah, punish those who get in my way… yet more blah blah blah-ing… something about a Turk… blah blah blah… something about a foolish woman. Blah blah blah, locked him away in the basement. Some smeared ink that probably wasn't important and was probably more blah blah blah-ing… Combination to the safe is… smudged beyond all recognition."

I dropped the paper, glaring.

"Well gee, **that** sure was informative." I muttered to myself, rolling my eyes skywards. "Figures."

Besides being very random, and marking the writer as being very self-obsessed, there was little to nothing worth mentioning about the papers.

My eye caught sight of another sheet of paper hidden under the piano. Mentally preparing myself for yet more torturous ramblings, I grabbed the paper and read it.

"Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling impurity, purging the stream to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens..."

I groaned, scrunching up the paper and tossing it over my shoulder.

"What the hell was that all about?" I grumbled, exiting the room. "Even the self-absorbed rambling made more sense."

And that was saying something.

"Any luck?" I heard a soft voice ask, behind me.

Turning around, finding Aeris exiting a different room, looking at me. I shook my head in reply.

"Not unless you count the self-absorbed writings of a petty man who claims to be an under-appreciated genius."

Aeris giggled at my answer.

"That's more than I found." She said.

That was likely true. Anything of any real value would have been removed or looted if the building had survived the flames, and if it was rebuilt from being burnt down, well, Shinra would hardly place their more valuable stuff in a building that they never use.

I'm assuming the building is never used, but then, I'm basing this educated guess on how much freaking dust there is.

"I'm going to look upstairs." I decided.

The Cetra nodded, and moved into a different room, leaving me to my own devices. Doing as I'd told Aeris I'd do, I trudged up the stairs to take a look at some of the rooms up here.

_Let's see what's behind door number one!_

I opened the first door I encountered, and was rewarded with… a mostly empty room with a safe. A safe that I didn't have the combination for.

You know, Yuffie's thieving habits could have actually come in handy here, but no, she had to get a hangover the one time we need her skills as a thief. I bet she did this on purpose. She somehow knew that her skills would be needed, but decided to deliberately get a hangover to get out of helping us.

That is so typical.

Ok, I'm being a little unfair. She wouldn't be hung over if it weren't for the fact that Shepard had decided that since sixteen was the legal drinking age he'd provide crates of beer for my birthday... So if I want to blame anybody, blame Shepard.

Resisting the urge to pull out my PHS and call Shepard just to tell him that he's an evil man who went out of his way to make life difficult, I instead decided to do something more useful, like check the next room.

The 'next room' was a bedroom. A master bedroom and it was even en suite, if the other door was anything to go by.

I pulled open the various drawers in the room, trying to find something useful. Anything, even if it was just a scrap of paper with the combination to the safe.

I pulled open the dresser and paused as I came face to face with a lot of SOLDIER uniforms hung up and waiting for someone to wear. Hey, these look like they might fit Cloud, who I'm not sure if he has any spares… Best tell him before we leave.

I wasn't desperate enough to scavenge around in the bathroom. And on exiting the room, Cloud was nosing around the other rooms, so I decided to go back to the safe and see if I can figure out how to crack it.

I mean, if Yuffie can do it, how hard can it be?

Pretty damned hard. It might just be that I don't have a stethoscope, but I can't tell what I'm doing. All I know is that the first number is right to 36, and then left to something. Problem is I don't hear anything different when I go past the number I'm supposed to go on.

It wasn't until the dust caused me to sneeze and I accidently pushed the dial in, clicking the selected number, that I found the number I needed. So far, I know: right to 36 and left to 10. Now I need to go right again.

And I missed the mark, so now I need to over.

Right, left, right, right… Missed again. Damn it, this safe cracking is harder than it looks. Try again, right, left, right… ease it right… THERE, right to 60…

"No!" I cried out in anguish as the safe reset itself.

I could have sworn that was it. So close, yet so far.

Now to retry.

Right, left, right… slowly move right… Well if the sound was different on 57 but it was wrong, then maybe…

"Woohoo!" I cheered, hearing the satisfying click that marked that the number was correct.

Now for the next number…

…

The sounds of the gears or whatever was completely different. On one hand, it marked that it was likely the last number needed. On the other… I now have no idea what I'm supposed to be listening for.

It was many frustrated attempts before I found my lucky break.

"A post-it note?" I exclaimed, staring at the yellow paper stuck on the ceiling.

This entire time, I was working hard at cracking this safe, and I could have looked up at the **ceiling** and read the entire combination…

It might have hurt my foot, but kicking the safe felt like a very good way of venting my frustrations. Well, it did a good job, but maybe it wasn't worth it.

Still, glaring angrily, I moved the dial in the specified directions, eager to finally open this safe and be done.

"Right to 36, left to 10, right to 59 and last, but not least, right to 97." I muttered to myself, moving the dial in the spoken direction.

The safe gave a very final sounding click, and I pulled the safe open, smirking in victory, proud that I had cracked my first safe. Ok, it wasn't exactly a good job, and I cheated at the end, but I refuse to let such technicalities bother me.

The inside of the safe wasn't very impressive. Three things caught my eye. A shiny red Materia orb, a key, and a sheet of paper.

I grabbed the paper first, curious as to what was important enough to warrant being locked in a safe.

"Blah blah blah… oh for crying out loud, does this guy ever **not** talk about how he is a genius no one appreciates?" I growled. "Blah blah blah… key to the… something room… in the basement. Well why didn't you just say so from the get go?"

I screwed up the paper and tossed it over my shoulder, ready to take the key and Materia, but paused when I didn't hear the paper ball land. Maybe it just landed on the rug outside the door?

"Cloud, stop drooling on my shoulder…" I muttered, wiping off the wet patch on my shoulder.

Wait…

Slowly, I turned around. I almost immediately wished that I hadn't. There, standing before me, was a large monster, which looked as though it had once been two separate monsters before being crushed together, forming this reject for Monsters Inc. It even had a parody of a friendly smile on its face.

"Oh shit." I cursed.

The monster opened its mouth, and made a grunting sound. It almost looked as if it wanted me to just climb into its mouth and accept my fate.

Swearing, loudly, I hurled a fira at it and did a baseball slide between its legs while it was distracted, before scrambling to my legs, already moving out of the door and to the upstairs landing, where I'd have more room to fight.

"Cloud! Get over here!" I bellowed, pulling out my gunblade and firing at the monster as it turned around to face me.

I heard the sound of running footsteps, but I became a little distracted by the fact that I suddenly had a monster bull rushing me, bellowing a loud roar.

* * *

AN::

I've noticed something while writing this chapter. It is a bad idea to fully write out chapters out of chronological order. I had a fully written out chapter based on events after this chapter, before I even began, and as a result, I winded up trying not to overlap events to badly, which is why this chapter seems shorter. Because it IS shorter.

A new lesson for me to learn, write the chapters in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Fair enough if I have a scene written down in advance, but a full chapter seems to hinder me more than help.

Not happy with this chapter, but what can I do? What's done is done. Enjoy.


	26. The Forgotten Turk

Chapter 25: The Forgotten Turk

Slowly, I turned around. I almost immediately wished that I hadn't. There, standing before me, was a large monster, which looked as though it had once been two separate monsters before being crushed together, forming this reject for Monsters Inc. It even had a parody of a friendly smile on its face.

"Oh shit." I cursed.

The monster opened its mouth, and made a grunting sound. It almost looked as if it wanted me to just climb into its mouth and accept my fate.

Swearing, loudly, I hurled a fira at it and did a baseball slide between its legs while it was distracted, before scrambling to my legs, already moving out of the door and to the upstairs landing, where I'd have more room to fight.

"Cloud! Get over here!" I bellowed, pulling out my gunblade and firing at the monster as it turned around to face me.

I heard the sound of running footsteps, but I became a little distracted by the fact that I suddenly had a monster bull rushing me, bellowing a loud roar.

I had neither the room, nor the time, to dive out of the way of the bull rushing monster. All I had the chance to do was register that the monster was indeed charging at me, before it hit.

The wind was knocked out of me, and I felt at least one of my ribs crack from the sudden impact of the large monster colliding with me. The force of the blow sent me flying back, until my back connected with an ever helpful wall, and I slid down it back to floor level, trying to blink the dancing Tonberries from my vision.

Another nasty effect of being slammed into by the monster was that my gunblade went flying off somewhere down the corridor, leaving me armed with my wits, my teeth, my claws and a knife that I haven't used for combat reasons since I was in Midgar. Somehow, I doubted any of these would be much help in this situation. And because of the fact that I can hardly think straight, I can't exactly just summon Montblanc or Boko or both of them to help me.

"Cloud!" I cried out, looking to the side, hoping to see the blond swordsman charging forward with the Buster Sword at the ready.

If he **was** coming, then I didn't get a chance to see, because the monster that had me at its mercy gave a roar, and lifted its oversized fist, before promptly slamming it into me, crushing me against the wall, which cracked under the pressure.

When it removed its fist, satisfied that it was a job well done, I coughed, shocked that I wasn't dead. A blow like that, I should have been a smear across the wall, not that I'm being ungrateful and all, but unless I'm secretly Super Lizard, someone explain?

It was then that I noticed that I was glowing yellow. I risked a glance to the side and found Aeris, palm facing towards me, a similar yellow glow coming from her hand.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"I'll explain later." Aeris shook her head. "Get out of the way!"

Grunting, I tried to stand up, but found that I couldn't, due to an extreme pain in my chest. That wasn't good.

"I can't move!" I hissed.

The monster raised its fist again, preparing to try and finish the job that the first blow failed to accomplish. Swearing, I shut my eyes as yet again, an oversized monster fist slammed into me, crushing me against the wall, which then splintered, having taken more abuse than it had been designed to withstand.

And yet again, I felt no worse off.

"Aeris, whatever you're doing, keep doing it." I managed to say, before coughing again.

"I can't keep this up forever." Aeris frowned. "Cloud, where are you?!"

I heard the sounds of footsteps, and through the hole in the wall I spotted both Cloud and Tifa take places either side of Aeris, combat ready.

"Took ya guys long enough." I managed to gasp, weakly. "What were you doing, making out in a broom closet?"

"Not the time for jokes, Spike." Cloud frowned, before his eyes widened. "Shit, you're bleeding."

I blinked, giving my body a once over.

"No I'm not." I managed to cough.

"Not like that. You're bleeding internally."

I felt something warm connect with the hand that I was coughing into. I gave it a look and blinked in surprise. Ah, I think I figured out the pain.

"My rib has pierced my lung." I managed to utter, drawing in a deep breathe.

Cloud's eyes narrowed. He took a step towards the hole in the wall but hesitated as the monster roared, turning to face him.

"Ifrit." Cloud cursed. "Tifa, you and I distract that thing, Aeris, you help Spike."

Aeris gave a firm nod of approval, and Tifa made sure that her gloves were tight. On an unspoken signal, both Cloud and Tifa charged sword and fists flying. Aeris stayed on the edge of the combat, waiting for an opening. Once the monster's back was turned, the Cetra raced forwards, hopping through the hole and coming up beside me.

Crouching down beside me, the Ancient cast sense on me, using it to get a full analysis of my injuries. It clearly didn't look good, as a frown marred her features.

"You were right; your rib pierced your lung." She muttered.

Ouch, it had mostly been a guesstimate of why I was coughing up blood.

"We need to heal this quickly." Aeris seemed to be stating the obvious, but I didn't fault her for it, it was helping to take my mind off the pain.

Outside the hole, Cloud used a blade beam to distract the monster as it attempted to slam its fist into Tifa.

Aeris tore off my t-shirt, and carefully schooled her expression into a neutral one. I lifted my head to look and winced at the large formation of purple lumps that covered my chest. It looked almost as painful as it felt.

"Do you have a knife?" Aeris asked; her tone as neutral as her expression.

I raised an eyebrow ridge at her, before a coughing fit interrupted the expression. Wincing at the sight of more blood on my hand, I decided to be verbal about it.

"Why do you need a knife?" I asked, breathlessly.

Aeris gave me a sympathetic look.

"If I just cast Curaga, the rib won't heal properly, and will likely be permanently stuck in your lung." She explained.

"So you need to cut me open in order to place my rib in a more normal position." I realized; voice dry.

Aeris nodded. Sighing, I leaned my head back, resting it against the floor.

"This ain't the best place for a surgery." I complained.

"If I move you, I risk making it worse. Either surgery here, or…"

"Jeez, you can sound so cold when you're being rational." I muttered, hand reaching for my belt.

I pulled out the combat knife I'd bought back in the Sector 5 slums, what felt like an age ago. Aeris accepted the blade and gave it a critical eye, before commenting that while far from ideal, it would have to do.

The Cetra pulled out a potion and poured the contents over my chest, as well as on the knife and even a pair of gloves which she had just put on.

"Not only will the potion act as a numbing agent, it'll also clean the knife and my hands so I don't give you an infection." Aeris calmly explained, guessing at the cause of the confused expression I likely had on my face.

"Potions act as antibiotics?" I asked, surprised.

The Ancient paused, considering the answer.

"Yes and no. You could drink a potion a day, and you'd still fall ill every so often, but when applied to surgery, it prevents bacterial infection. I can't even begin to explain the reasons…"

"You're a healer, not a scholar?" I quipped, corners of my lips twitching.

Aeris gave a small smile and nod, before readying my knife.

Even though I knew first hand that potions poured over a wound numb the entire area, Aeris having caused one such wound at one time, I was still nervous as I watched the knife lower itself to my right rib cage, hand steady as a rock.

The knife cut through my scales, and I hissed, feeling the pain despite the numbing. Aeris was forced to retract the knife as I squirmed around, breath being released in a steady hiss.

"Spike, I need you to stop squirming." Aeris told me, voice firm.

"It hurts." I groaned.

"No it doesn't." She shook her head. "You only think it does. You're seeing yourself being cut and your brain is telling you that it **should** hurt, and your body is listening."

"Well how do I not listen to my brain?!" I hissed, teeth bared.

"Don't watch." She ordered me. "Watch Cloud and Tifa fight the monster, but don't look at me or what I'm doing."

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself down, and turned to look out of the hole in the wall where Cloud and Tifa were fighting the monster that had put me in this state.

Cloud was crouched low, Buster Sword brought up as a shield of sorts, which blocked a punch from the monster. The force of the punch sent even the Mako enhanced Cloud skidding backwards. While the monster's back was turned, Tifa leapt in to take up the offensive, delivering a swift scissor kick to the back of the monster's overly large face.

The monster appeared to stumble forwards at the attack, and turned to face the martial artist, who delivered a powerful roundhouse kick, before hoping out of reach of the retaliatory punch. However, she hadn't been prepared for a retaliatory Thundara, which send her to the floor, bolts of electricity arcing through her body.

Cloud clearly disapproved of his childhood sweetheart being taking out by a lowly trick like that. With a roar, Cloud charged at the monster, jabbing his sword into its chest, before leaping skywards, dragging the blade through the monster as he went. The monster roared, but otherwise ignored the large gash that ran from its chest up to its forehead, somehow managing to go right between the eyes. A Thundara was delivered to Cloud, who, unlike Tifa, had been prepared and used the Buster Sword as a lighting rod. Like my gunblade, the handle of the Buster Sword was insulated against electrical currents, so Cloud was safe.

The distraction allowed for Tifa to recover from her shocking experience and ready herself. After several seconds, the martial artist launched herself at the monster, delivering a barrage of powerful punches, before kicking herself into a somersault, kicking it as she twisted back. She landed, already pivoting around and swept her leg out, slamming a steel toe caped shoe into the monster's side, before leaping upwards to deliver a powerful uppercut, which was accompanied by the ghostly image of a dolphin slamming into the monster at the same point that her fist connected.

And the monster gave a roar of discomfort, before half of the monster faded away, making it look like a complete monster, rather than the halves of two different monster fused together.

A grunt had me looking back at Aeris, despite her order not to. What I saw made my breaths come out faster, and I stared at the site of my flesh having been peeled open, revealing my innards. I could easily see the three broken ribs, one of which had pierced the sack that was my lung.

A whimper managed to escape my throat.

That is a sight that nobody wants to see, their own innards revealed for the world to view at their pleasure.

The pain returned, full force, and I realized that Aeris had been right, it was looking at the injury which was making it hurt now. But now, I had the image in my head, and it wouldn't leave. My breathing was becoming erratic as I began to panic, the pain overloading my senses.

Aeris must have noticed, but then, if she were looking at my lungs, it would have been obvious. She turned sharply to face me, but her expression softened as she saw that I was clearly in pain. Moving closer, she began to make soothing sounds, thumb moving across my cheek in what I supposed was meant to be a calming manner.

"It hurts!" I gasped, screwing my eyes shut. "Hurts…"

"It'll be over soon." Aeris told me, voice calm.

Damned image wouldn't leave my mind. It's the knowledge that I'm actually like that that made it all the worse. I suppose it's like phantom limb syndrome, you feel pain that isn't there, because your brain over-rides all other senses and tells you 'yes, you **are** in pain, it **is **there.'

Creating random mental images to try and block out the image of my chest all cut open, I gradually felt the pain lesson. It faded to a more bearable level, and by the time my mental images started getting weird, like Cloud doing his victory sword spin only to take off like a helicopter, I heard Aeris talking again.

Opening my eyes, I found that my flesh had been folded back over, and Aeris was slowly healing the cuts, running a finger that was alight with a soft green glow along the surgical lines, leaving no evidence of my ever being cut open. Sighing, I lowered my head back to the floor, waiting for her to finish.

After what felt like an age, Aeris pulled me to a sitting position and wrapped her arms around me.

"You were very brave." She said, before releasing me.

"Doesn't seem like it." I muttered, blinking. "I just whimpered like a child."

Aeris gave me a soft smile.

"Do you believe Yuffie would have been able to endure that without begging to have sleep cast on her? Or that she'd have made the effort to not look?"

I blinked again, turning to her.

"Why **didn't** you put me to sleep?" I asked.

The Cetra looked slightly embarrassed, as she gave her response.

"I let Cait Sith borrow the Materia, as he was staying with Yuffie." She confessed.

I managed a soft laugh, before trying to get to my feet. Aeris pushed me back down as I tried, before handing me a bottle.

"Drink." She commanded.

I accepted the bottle and drank the entire contents in one gulp. Instantly, what pain I still felt vanished, and I felt my stamina returning to me.

"That elixir should help, but take it easy." Aeris warned me, before helping me up.

Once on my feet, I could see why Aeris warned me to take it easy. Even though it was healed, there was a feeling of fragility about my chest, or my rib cage to be specific. Broken bones are a difficult thing to fully heal I suppose.

"If you drink another elixir tomorrow, you should be fine, but until then, be careful." The Ancient repeated.

I nodded, heeding the advice of the team medic. At that moment, Cloud and Tifa walked in, looking rather worried.

"How are you?" Cloud asked, seeing me on my feet.

"Thanks to Doctor Gainsborough here, I'm as good as I'm going to get." I answered, accepting my knife back from Aeris.

I winced at the blood on the blade, and the knowledge that it was my blood. I scooped up what remained of my t-shirt to wipe the blade clean before returning it to its sheath.

As I was pulling a tank top out of my storage Materia in order to replace the t-shirt, Tifa spoke up, sounding slightly hesitant.

"Spike, we have some bad news."

I turned to face the martial artist, eyebrow ridge raised, midway through pulling on the top.

"What?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

It was Cloud who answered, and not verbally. Instead, he held up an item for me to examine. I blinked in order to make sure that what I was seeing was true before swearing.

"The monster trod on it a couple of times." Tifa explained.

I took Talon from Cloud's hand and examined the damage.

A quarter of the blade had snapped off from the end, and there was a massive chip along the edge of the blade. Also of note was that there was a huge dent halfway up what remained of the blade. Talon, my faithful gunblade since Midgar… was dead.

"Shit." I cursed again, sadly looking at what had been a pretty damned good weapon.

"Can't Spike just replace it at the next town?" Aeris asked.

Cloud shook his head.

"Gunblades are a rarity." He explained. "You get a couple of shops that sell them, but for the most part, they're ordered custom made."

"And I doubt we can afford to trek all the way back to Midgar just to see if the shop that I got this from still sells them." I muttered.

Sighing, I gave it a test swing, and found that the balance was completely out of whack. It was usable, but it would be nowhere near as effective a weapon as it had been before. I felt the end of the blade, where it had snapped and found that at least the jagged edges made it sharp enough to still stab if the need arose. I then fired a test shot at the wall.

"At least the gun part still works." I shrugged, though it didn't improve me mood. "If nothing else, for a while I'll be a backseat fighter."

I probably shouldn't feel so depressed about the loss of my gunblade, after all, it was a tool, and little more, but after using it for so long, it felt like an extension of my own body, and losing it felt like I was losing an arm.

Cloud must have sensed the feeling and agreed, because he gave me a sympathetic look… which appeared as though he was grimacing at me.

Giving another sigh, I walked out off the room the same way I entered, through the hole in the wall, and back to the safe, glancing again at the contents. Cloud came up behind me and also took a look, before picking up the Materia.

"Hmm… Odin." Cloud mused, eyes narrowed in thought.

"That's a pretty powerful summon." I pointed out.

The blond nodded, before pocketing the Materia. The last thing left in the safe was the key, which I pocketed myself.

"A locked room in the basement." I considered. "Were there any locked doors when you were here last time?"

Cloud bowed his head, considering.

"There **was** a door that was locked." He nodded. "At the time I hadn't given it much thought, Sephiroth took priority."

"Well now we have a chance to explore it." I grunted, turning to leave the room. "Have you explored the rest of the mansion?"

"Everything except for the basement." Cloud answered, following me.

I paused in the corridor, standing beside the two girls, before I sheepishly looked at Cloud.

"I don't know the way to the basement." I admitted.

Cloud gave a small laugh before taking over the lead. We followed him into a particular room, and then through a door at the other side of the room to come to yet another empty room, but this room had a corner covered in rough stone bricks. If I squinted, I could just see the outlines of a door cut into the stone.

Cloud confidently moved to the stonework and pushed against a particular area, and the hidden door swung inwards, allowing us entry.

On the other side of the door was a long spiralling staircase, and no rail guard to protect people from falling. Either the people who made this staircase were very lazy, or very confident in the abilities of the people who would be using it. I'd put my money on the former.

The bottom of the staircase showed a rather dingy looking corridor which had seen better days. Dirt covered the floor and the walls looked like mould was growing up them, trying to dominate the walls.

Cloud ignored all of this and moved down the corridor, eyes alert for any sign of the silver haired swordsman that we were hunting. About halfway down the corridor, he paused, having come across a door. He jiggled the handle about before shaking his head.

"It's locked." He told us.

I pulled the key from the safe out of my pocket and gave it to the blond, who accepted it with a nod. He pushed the key into the keyhole and smirked.

"It's a fit." He declared, giving the key a twist.

A click symbolized that the door had just gone from being locked, to unlocked, and Cloud pushed the door open.

Inside there wasn't much to see, unless one counted the coffin sitting on an alter in the middle of the room. A coffin made of mahogany, if I was correct.

Cloud advanced into the room, peering closely at the coffin, eyebrow raised. For a moment, I had no idea what he was doing, but when Tifa tilted her head, as if trying to hear something, I heard it myself. A deep groaning noise. Almost like… snoring?

"There's someone in this coffin." Cloud exclaimed after a moment.

With that thought in mind, Cloud began to push the lid off of the coffin, frowning.

"Could this be one of the wonders of Nibelheim?" Tifa mused. "The groaning sound that could always be heard coming from the mansion?"

With a clatter, the lid of the coffin fell the ground, revealing a man with dark hair wearing a red cloak snoozing away. And not a peaceful snooze. The man kept turning as much as the confined spaces of the coffin would allow, occasionally making a grunting sound. Frowning, Cloud kicked the side of the coffin in an effort to wake the man up.

It worked, though the strange man clearly didn't appreciate being woken in such a manner. His red eyes snapped open and before he was even in an upright position, he already had an unusual looking pistol trained on Cloud. The blond took the pistol being pointed at him calmly, crossing his arms and levelling a look at the man with the triple barrelled pistol pointed at him.

"Who is it?" The man asked, blinking. "Never seen you before."

"You were having a nightmare." Cloud told the man.

"You don't look so good." I commented, noticing the haunted look that the strange man had about him.

"hmph." The man scoffed. "A nightmare…? My long sleep has given me time to atone."

"What are you saying?" Cloud asked.

"I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out." The man snapped,

"How rude." Aeris huffed, her hands perching themselves on her hips.

"This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare." The man carried on, ignoring the Cetra.

"You can say that again." Cloud muttered.

The man gave a sound of curiosity.

"What do you know?" He queried.

"Like you said, this mansion is the beginning of a nightmare." Cloud spoke up. "No, it's not a dream, it's for real. Sephiroth has lost his mind. He found the secrets hidden in this mansion…"

"Sephiroth!?" The man exclaimed.

"You know Sephiroth?" Both Cloud and the man asked each other at the same time.

The man leapt out of the coffin, floating through the air to land gracefully on the edge of the coffin, just above where his head had been previously.

"You start first." The man commanded.

And Cloud revealed everything that had happened thus far.

"…That's how it was." Cloud concluded.

"So Sephiroth knows he was created five years ago? And the Jenova Project?" The man asked, more to himself than us, as if gathering his thoughts. "…He was missing, but has just recently reappeared. He has taken many lives and is seeking the Promised Land."

"Now it's your turn." Cloud said.

"Sorry… I cannot speak."

I groaned, hand slapping against my face.

"For the love of… I should have seen this coming." I mumbled, hearing similar thoughts coming from Tifa.

The man hopped back into his coffin, giving us a serious look.

"Hearing your stories, has added upon me yet another sin. More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had." He informed us, before lying himself down in the coffin. "Now… Please leave."

And with those words, the lid of the coffin flew into the air before slamming itself down on the coffin, once again sealing the man away from the world.

Cursing, I directed a good hard kick at the side of the coffin, hoping that it would annoy the man. Bastard deserved it.

As my foot connected, the lid of the coffin went flying off, and the man sat up again, this time his pistol trained on me rather than Cloud.

"You're still here." He commented, icily.

""Who **are** you?" I asked, directing a glare at him.

"At least tell us your name." Cloud added.

"I was with… the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research, otherwise known as t… the Turks… He introduced himself. "Vincent Valentine."

"The Turks?" Cloud gaped.

"Formerly of the Turks." Vincent countered. "I have no affiliation with Shinra now. And you?"

"Cloud, formerly of SOLDIER." Cloud grunted.

"You were also with Shinra…?" Vincent mused. "Then do you know Lucrecia?"

"Who?" Cloud asked.

"Lucrecia." Vincent repeated after a pause.

Cloud shook his head and Vincent sighed.

"The woman who gave birth to Sephiroth." He revealed.

"…Gave birth…?" Cloud frowned. "Wasn't Jenova Sephiroth's mother?"

"That isn't completely wrong, but just a theory." Vincent told us. "He was born from a beautiful lady. That lady was Lucrecia. She was an assistant to Professor Gast of the Jenova Project. Beautiful… Lucrecia."

"…A human experiment?"

"There was no way to cancel the experiment. I couldn't stop her. That was my sin. I let the one I loved, the one I respected most, face the worst.

"And sleeping will atone for that sin? Seems more to me like you're hiding from your sins, rather then trying to atone." I muttered.

As if he couldn't face my words, the coffin lid flew up and once again returned to the coffin.

"Let me sleep…" Vincent called out through the coffin.

With little else to do, we turned and left the room.

"Well that was enlightening." Cloud muttered. "Only place left to check is the library."

Turning, he once again led the way, and pushed open a door to a well lit room. On entering, besides the cylinders that looked vaguely like the one I'd been smashed out of back in Shinra tower, I instantly saw the books. Shelf upon shelf of books.

And down a corridor of shelves and books, was Sephiroth, sat behind a desk, an expectant look on his face.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud snarled.

"Being here brings back memories." Sephiroth commented, idly. "Are you going to participate in the Reunion?"

"I don't even know what a Reunion is!" Cloud snapped.

"Jenova will be at the Reunion. Jenova will join the Reunion becoming a calamity from the skies." Sephiroth continued, as if he hadn't heard Cloud.

"Jenova, a calamity from the skies?" Cloud blinked in confusion. "You mean she wasn't an Ancient?"

"…I see." Sephiroth shook his head. "I don't think you have the right to participate. I will go north, past Mount Nibel. If you wish to find out… then follow…"

"Reunion? Calamity from the skies?" Cloud tried to make sense of what he'd heard.

As if tiring of Cloud's ignorance, Sephiroth tossed a Materia orb at Cloud, which hit him right in the…

"HAH, for once **I **wasn't the one to get hit there!" I gloated, doing a jig, before giving a yelp and diving to the floor as Sephiroth literally came flying past us and out the door.

By the time I'd turned to look, he was already long gone. Cloud managed to climb back to his feet, casting cura on himself in the process, and pocketing the Materia turned projectile.

We exited the library, back as expected; there was no sign of Sephiroth. The fact that the silver haired man could fly only meant that not only was he faster than us, he didn't need to climb the stairs to exit the basement, he could just fly up.

"Let's go." Cloud sighed, realizing that our target had eluded us again.

Halfway down the corridor, we were halted by a familiar voice. Turning around, we watched as Vincent seemed to glide up to us, landing with an elegant flip. The former Turk looked at us, red eyes searching for something.

"Wait! If I go with you, will I meet Hojo?" He asked.

"Dunno." Cloud answered truthfully. "But we're after him and Sephiroth. So I guess, sooner or later…"

"Lucrecia…" Vincent mumbled, eyes closed in thought. "All right. I've decided to go with you."

Tifa made a sound of confusion, and the red caped gunman turned to look at her.

"Being a former Turk, I may be of help to you…" He explained himself.

Cloud considered it for several seconds, before nodding.

"All right then." He agreed.

And that was how Vincent Valentine joined our motley crew of misfits. I wonder whether or not he was prepared for what was in store.

Unless he could secretly see into the future, that was doubtful.

* * *

The next morning, we were fully prepared to leave Nibelheim behind. During the night, the cloaked men vanished, and with them, their ramblings of 'Reunion' and 'the great Sephiroth'.

Despite having knowledge of the very beginning of the Jenova Project, Vincent had no knowledge on what this 'Reunion' business was, or even whether it had anything to do with the general project. He then made a point of reminding us that he had been out of the loop since he'd been sleeping his sins away.

I commented on how he must have been one hell of a heavy sleeper, to miss the events only a few years ago. The events of which happened to include Nibelheim suffering Sephiroth's newfound (at the time) insanity. Vincent only shrugged and spoke about his nightmares. I kind of blanked him out at that point.

Seriously, I think Vincent is cool and all, but the emo attitude is a tad irritating. He went to sleep in a coffin to atone for his sins? Sorry, but last I checked, that was not how one went about atoning for their sins. That was called hiding from your problems and hoping that by the time you awoke, they would be gone.

They only got worse for Vincent, what with Sephiroth, a product of his sins (to an extent, I suppose) now on an insane rampage.

Barret had demanded to see how the former Turk could handle himself in a battle before truly accepting him into the team. Vincent obliged, exiting Nibelheim and tracking down a pack of Nibel Wolves.

While he was doing the tracking, he humoured us and our questions by taking the time to tell us that his pistol was a custom made piece of art, that he'd named Cerberus, after the three headed dog. It made sense to me, since the gun had three barrels.

Once we found the pack of Nibel Wolves, the former Turk took them out single handed; using an impressive use of sniping out the alpha with his pistol before gunning down the rest with shots that effortlessly cut them down. He then went about proving that the gauntlet that seemed to be wielded onto his flesh made for a very convenient melee weapon when he took on a Valron (some deformed blue devil wannabe).

Needless to say, Barret was actually impressed. He then pointed at Yuffie and demanded to know why she was still here when she clearly didn't have the awesome skills that Vincent had. Yuffie retaliated by pointing out that Barret was currently without Materia, and ran off, leaving a cursing Barret and a bemused Vincent, who'd had his own Materia filched. He was secretly impressed, I could tell. Then again, considering Yuffie hadn't gone anywhere near the ex-Turk, it **was** an impressive display of her thieving skills.

But all that was yesterday, and now, we were traversing the Nibel Pass, the closest thing that Mount Nibel had to a road leading to the other side of the mountains. It had the unfortunate effect of bringing us closer to the Mount Nibel reactor than we would have liked, but Tifa, her skills as a former tour guide coming into play, reassured us that though we would be passing the reactor by, we wouldn't actually have to see the drat thing.

Barret gave a suggestion of blowing it up.

I honestly agreed. From what Cloud told us, there was nothing good about the reactor, and it could still have those Mako pods full of mutated monsters.

Cloud shot down our hopes with a couple of words.

"No bombs."

Right, should have remembered that. Jessie made the bombs back in Midgar, and seeing as she was left behind in Midgar, along with Biggs, that meant we had no blowing shit up fun to be had. Damn it, we should have brought Jessie along just for this purpose. Besides, you never know when a bomb might come in handy. Like now, where we're soon to pass by one of the things that AVALANCHE made a point of trying to destroy. And this one would be unguarded, so it wouldn't even be that hard of a task.

We eventually came to a wall which we were forced to climb if we wanted to continue, unless we wanted to spend a couple of hours taking a detour. The votes were clear, no detours. The trip around the mountain would take long enough as it was, take a detour, and we risk being here at night, which was especially dangerous for these parts. The wall was long enough for two people to climb at a time.

It was also too steep for Red to climb, even with his impressive skills in that department.

That did cause a delay, as we had no idea how to get Red up there. How does one transfer a lupine to the top of a large cliff?

"Someone will have to carry him." Cloud crossed his arms.

It was worth the small delay just to see Red sputter indignantly.

"Can we avoid that?" Red asked, coming as close to pleading as I'd ever seen him.

"What's wrong?" Aeris asked.

"It's humiliating." Red mumbled.

"We don't exactly have much of a choice." Vincent commented, idly.

"This isn't Fort Condor, there's no vine to lift you up with." I added. "Besides, you didn't have a problem back at Fort Condor."

Red gave me a look, eyes narrowed.

"If I'm to be carried, I demand Spike be the one to carry me." He said.

"Wait, what?" I gaped. "No, get Cloud to do it; he's the one with Mako enhanced strength."

"If I have to put up with any embarrassment, I'm making you suffer with me."

"Oh come on Red…"

"Spike, you're carrying him." Cloud commanded, though his eyes betrayed his amusement.

_Bastards, the lot of them._

'_You could use the exercise.' _Spike commented, idly.

_I do not need exercise; we've been hiking for days on end most of the time since leaving Midgar. Exercise is something I no __**not**__ need._

'_An exercise in patience.' _Spike finished.

Miserable git. Like he's one to talk about patience.

"So how exactly do I carry someone as heavy as Red up a cliff?" I asked.

"Are you calling me fat?" Red glowered.

"No, but that doesn't stop you from being heavy." I pointed out. "And that doesn't answer how I'm supposed to carry you, and still be able to climb."

"Crouch down."

I did as told, and felt a sudden weight on my back.

"Like this." Red breathed in my ear.

Oh great, I have to piggy back Red while climbing. Well, this wouldn't be too difficult if it weren't for...

"You're heavier than you look." I groaned, managing to climb to my feet, despite being weighed down.

"Drop me, and I **will **bite you." Red growled, as I almost fell backwards.

"You have any idea how disturbing this looks?" I asked, trudging towards the cliff we had to climb.

"Plenty, but it is the only way I can be carried. See why I didn't want to be carried in the first place? And lift your tail so that it's helping to support my weight."

"This is payback for when I was a kid, isn't it?" I muttered, finding some hand holds to begin climbing the cliff. "You never did like it when I tried to get a ride from you."

"Oh yes. Revenge is mine at last."

"You are so very cruel." I muttered, wincing. "Ow… Watch where you put that claw!"

I slowly managed to climb to the top of the cliff, where I took several steps forwards before I promptly fell forwards, landing with a yelp. Red's weight on my back really wasn't helping.

It also didn't help that he didn't seem to getting off any time soon. If anything, he just made himself comfortable.

"Comfy." He mocked.

"Cruel and twisted." I muttered.

Slowly, the rest of AVALANCHE began climbing up the cliff after us. Yuffie arrived first, and she took a seat beside where I was lying, looking amused. Eventually, only Tifa was left.

"Why does Tifa always climb up ladders and the like last?" Yuffie asked, out of the blue.

I gave the best look of implied stupidity that I could while being crushed into the ground by Red's weight. I felt Red shift so that he was facing her and imagined that he was pulling off a much better job at the look than I was.

"Do you seriously need to ask?" I questioned her, in a flat tone of voice.

"What? You mean her choice of clothing?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "It's not like we all haven't seen up there at least once, what with the somersaulting and the like… they're whi…"

I felt Red's weight leave me, but I didn't feel relieved, I felt desperation. Red lunged at Yuffie, who squeaked in surprise. Before she could do much of anything else, I shoved my hand against her mouth, preventing another sound from leaving.

"We. Do. Not. Mention. That." I hissed.

"It won't matter who or what you are, she will kick your ass." Red added, shooting a nervous look towards the cliff edge, where Tifa was just pulling herself up.

"Do we make ourselves clear?" I asked.

I felt Yuffie nodding, so I released her, grimacing at the moisture of her spit on my hand.

"Next time I stop you from talking, please don't lick my hand." I grunted, whipping my hand on my jeans.

"It generally gets people to let go." She defended herself.

"Yes, but if I'm the one covering your mouth, it is with good reason." I frowned.

"What did you mean by no matter who or **what** you are?" Yuffie asked.

"Erm…" Yes, Red was nervous, and with good reason. "I kind of mentioned it back at Fort Condor…"

"If anything gets a reaction out of her, that's it." I shuddered.

Tifa is scary when she's pissed off. I don't know whether everyone else knew not to mention it, but even if they didn't, I wasn't about to risk my neck telling them.

Though I had been surprised that Red was the one that spoke aloud about it in her presence. I guess I could put it down as lack of understanding human females. Then again, no one understands human females... except human females.

It was also that incident that had Tifa start climbing things after everyone else had already gone up. And she was always the first to climb down.

"If it's such an issue, why does she wear…?"

"Just. Don't. Talk. About. It." I cut her off.

"Forget any thoughts you ever had on the subject and leave it at that." Red told her, before pointedly walking away from her, me in close pursuit.

Yuffie was left standing alone, her face the picture of confusion.

There weren't too many obstacles for the rest of the pass. It was mostly just routine monster attacks by mutant mosquitoes, otherwise known as Kyuvilduns along with the odd bird-like creature, known as a Sonic Speed.

But through most of the fighting, I was reduced to sitting back shooting at the odd monster, my blade being damaged and all meant that I should avoid using it unless it was an emergency. The chip and general bluntness caused by the oversized monster stepping on it meant that while it still had cutting power, it risked getting stuck inside the cut.

And shooting things might be enough for Barret and Vincent, but it left me feeling like I wasn't doing my part for the team.

This was rendered false when we were attacked by a Zuu, which flew just out of range of any and all melee attacks, and I do say that with the length of the Buster Sword in mind. Thus it was left to Vincent, Barret, Yuffie and me to shoot (or in the case of Yuffie, throw her shuriken) the oversized bird. The Zuu wasn't that tough of a monster, more of a nuisance than anything. A nuisance that Cloud couldn't just skewer with the Buster Sword, but it was still a nuisance none the less.

When we reached the rope bridge that would lead us to a cave from which we could continue through to come out the other side of the mountain, or head into the reactor, I paused, eying the bridge with suspicion.

"Didn't you say that this thing snapped?" I asked Cloud.

"Wasn't the first time. Doubt it would be the last time." Cloud answered, calmly.

"Was that supposed to reassure me?" I frowned. "That wasn't very reassuring."

"The chances of it snapping are highly unlikely." The blond rolled his eyes.

"And the chances of most of what has happened to us?" I countered.

"You're being pessimistic."

"There are two advantages to that: I get the satisfaction of knowing that I was right, or I'm pleasantly surprised."

Cloud rolled his eyes again.

"Would it make you feel better if you cross last, by yourself?" He questioned, sounding tired.

Actually, that sounded like a reasonable idea.

Is it obvious I don't trust rope bridges? Ropes can snap, can rot, end can be cut far too easily for me to just go and trust one that is supposed to prevent me from falling to my death.

Being told that the bridge snapped regularly was not something that reassured me. It was something that made me all the more worried. The way that AVALANCHE's luck had a habit of being, I just knew that Murphy was waiting to give me a good hard kick in the teeth.

And with my luck, Murphy would miss his kick and I'd be wondering whether fate was trying to tell me something about the concept of me having children. While groaning in pain; naturally.

Everyone else began to cross the bridge, and I watched intently. The bridge gave no sign of looking like it was even beginning to feel any stress at all the weight being put upon it.

Once everyone else was at the end, or near enough, I began to cross it myself, wincing at the groaning sound that the wooden slabs made as they had my weight pressed upon them. I slowly moved forwards, ignoring Yuffie's yells of 'hurry up, slowpoke'.

I paused when I heard footsteps behind me. Turning, I found myself face to face with a blond man with a scar running down his forehead, wearing an ankle length, white trench coat, with a cross that looked vaguely like the Cross of Saint James upon the sleeves. He also wore a rather arrogant smirk, which I cared nothing for.

"So, you're the lizard boy." The man, who I quickly identified as Seifer, smirked.

"Indeed. And you are rocking the bridge, so fuck off." I snapped, taking several steps back.

"Can't do that. See, there's this bounty on your head, and I'm here to collect."

"I have a bounty on my head?" I repeated, dumbstruck. "What the hell…"

"Yeah, most people say that." Seifer shrugged. "Act so surprised that they registered as important enough in someone's books to warrant having a bounty placed on them."

"The bastard placed a bounty on me for throwing his cat off of the roof?" I mumbled to myself.

"You threw who's cat off what?" Seifer apparently had sharp enough hearing to hear my mumbling.

"President Rufus' Dark Nation off of the roof of the Shinra Tower."

The blond hesitated, blinking, before bursting out laughing.

"Oh that is rich. I wish I'd been there to see that." He howled, before straightening himself and advancing several steps. "If it were up to me, I'd let you go just for that, but a jobs a job."

The blond reached into his coat and pulled out his gunblade, the Hyperion. Cursing, I took several steps back, a little too quickly, since the bridge rocked sideways. Having the Hyperion pointed at me was a little discomforting. Tensing, I leapt back as he swung the blade in an overhead arc. It slammed down upon the wooden slab and splintered it. Looking annoyed that I hadn't just accepted my fate, he hopped over the gap in the bridge and levelled his gunblade at me again.

By this time, I had pulled out what remained of Talon and was holding it in my usual relaxed stance, though at that moment in time, I was feeling anything but relaxed. Seifer was a master of the gunblade, though holding it out like that; he was likely to get a very sore arm eventually.

Unless the Hyperion was that much lighter than it looked.

His stance was similar to that of a fencer, the way held the blade out so that it was pointed towards me, with one arm, his body turned away from me.

This is the part where I wish I had an intimate knowledge of swords and the various forms of combat with them.

Deciding that the best defence was a good offence, I hopped towards him, blade swinging in an upwards strike. Seifer moved his own blade to intercept, but neither blade met each other, as I'd over-estimated the length of the blade, having forgotten that a quarter of it was now missing.

I did wind up getting a shot off at his face while the end was still pointed in his general direction.

The blond flinched, stepping back, before coming in to try and reverse the roles, and make me the one who has to defend while he uses a good offence. Cursing, I ducked, and swung at his leg while I was down low. Seifer leapt back, avoiding the amputation and hopped right back in without hesitation, already making his next move.

I was right, he was good. But even I could see that he put too much power into his attacks, so when the blade didn't connect with anything he tended to overbalance; letting me try to get a hit in. The word being 'try'.

I managed to parry once or twice, but for the most part, I was forced to try and just dodge the attacks. One of the problems was that I was in the way of Seifer, so the rest of AVALACHE couldn't get a shot in to help. I doubt even Vincent, with his amazing aim would risk this.

The fighting came to a rather abrupt halt though, when he parried an attempted slash, and my blade slid down the length of the Hyperion, before sliding off and cutting into the rope to the side.

Both of us looked at the halfway cut rope and swallowed.

"Ah, shit." I swore.

Seifer was a bit more vocal about it, but our swearing didn't stop the rope from snapping completely.

The bridge tilted awkwardly, and I was forced to grab onto the edge of the bridge as it twisted sidewards, trying to dump whatever was on it down into the darkness below. Seifer did likewise, cursing all the while. Then the other rope snapped, and the bridge fell, slamming against the wall that was the side of a mountain.

The shock caused me to let go, and I fell.

Small consolation prize, Seifer was falling with me. At least I wouldn't be going alone.


	27. The Gift of Earth

Chapter 26: The Gift of Earth

I picked myself up, groaning at the ache that the tumble had left all over my body. I almost jumped when I got an answering groan. Glancing towards the sound of the groan, I sighed when I realized that it was Seifer. The mercenary didn't look any better than I felt. He had a black eye, and blood was running down his face. His clothes were tattered as well.

He managed to get up on his own two feet, using the Hyperion as a crutch, and glared at me, as if this whole bum deal were my fault. He then started to take a look at our surroundings. I did so as well, curious. We'd fallen into some kind of underground cavern. The walls were smooth, telling me that this wasn't a natural formation. Well, that, and the door at the end. What got me, was that there was no sign of the hole that me and Seifer had fallen through. In fact, other then the door, there was no exit, and I know that I didn't fall a small distance through a door at ground level.

"Weird place." Seifer commented at last, pulling a potion from his coat and chugging it down.

I mimicked the action, healing myself up with one of my spare hi-potions. The bruises faded away, leaving the phantom pains. That done, I moved towards the door, examining it. It appeared to be made of oak, but when I touched it, something felt off about it. Like it wasn't even wood. I pulled the door open and took a look. On the other side was more cave. We definitely hadn't come in this way.

When I relayed that bit of information to the scarred mercenary, Seifer swore.

"How'd we get in?" He asked, frowning.

"We fell." I reminded him, with a glare.

"Well where's the opening?" He demanded to know, looking about the dome shaped cavern. "There is none!"

I was inclined to agree that it didn't look like there had ever been an opening; the walls and ceiling looked like they hadn't been touched in centuries, and there was no markings. The only thing that looked out of place was the door.

"You sure the door don't lead outside?" He asked, turning to face me sharply.

"If it did, I'd have left already." I snapped. "No, it leads to more cave."

"Then how do we get out?"

"You must go forwards to go back." A wizened old voice spoke up.

Both Seifer and myself whirled around, pointing our gunblades at the bearded old man who hadn't been there before.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

"I? I am but an old man, who has guarded this sacred place for many years." Was the response.

"Sacred?" Seifer asked, sounding suspicious, yet at the same time, interested.

"This is one of four sacred shrines, created by the planet itself. Legend tells that the original four Light Warriors themselves once fought through these shrines, before they fought Chaos itself."

"Wait..." Seifer interrupted, frowning. "You don't mean to say that **this** is one of the Soul Shrines?"

"Soul Shrines?" I asked, confused.

Seifer turned to look at me.

"The four Soul Shrines were the original resting places of the four Crystals. One for each element. The Shrines themselves were... special... even after the Crystals were removed. The Lifestream is interwoven with the Shrines, making them more then simple caves. The specifics were lost over time though. The name comes from the superstition that these Shrines house the soul of the Planet itself."

"You are correct." The Old Man commented. "This is one of the four Soul Shrines.

"But the Soul Shrines are a myth!" Seifer snapped. "Some children's fairy tale."

"You seem to know a lot about it though." I pointed out.

"When I'm not working, I tend to research legends and ancient lore." Seifer admitted. "Legends are usually built on at least some truth. The problem is that over time, storytellers add a little of their own touch to the story, unknowingly disfiguring the truth."

Wow, I hadn't expected that answer. There seems to be more to Seifer then the power crazy maniac of Final Fantasy 8.

"What makes you so certain that these Soul Shrines are just a myth?" I asked.

"It's too unbelievable." Seifer grunted. "Them holding the Crystals is slightly believable, they had to have come from somewhere, before they were used and abused by us humans...."

"I'm not human." I reminded him.

"Whatever." Seifer snapped. "Point is, the Crystals were eventually destroyed, and with it, humanities ability to use magic without Materia. The Soul Shrines are still supposed to hold the power of the Crystals, even with the Crystals themselves now destroyed. Allegedly, one day, new Crystals will form within the Shrines."

"Believe what you may, but this a Soul Shrine." The old man said.

"Even if it is, it doesn't concern us." I spoke up. "We just want out."

"I said before, that the only way out, is to go forward." The man reminded me.

I turned to Seifer, annoyed.

"Right, for argument's sake, let's say this **is** a Soul Shrine. Use your knowledge of legends and lore to help us out."

The blond growled, muttering something to himself.

"Ok, for argument's sake, this is a Soul Shrine." I agreed, before concentrating. "This shrine was in the Nibelheim Mountains, so that would make this shrine the Earthgift Shrine."

The old man nodded at us, a merry twinkle in his eyes, and a small smile on his lips.

"You are correct." He informed us.

"In that case, this shrine has five floors, not counting this area, and the actual shrine itself." Seifer continued.

"Correct." The old man repeated.

"And if the legends are true, then the exit sealed up behind us, and as we progress, the way back will continue to seal up each floor. So the only way out, will be through the shrine."

"Figures." I muttered.

The old man nodded, sagely, and turned towards the door.

"You are quite the knowledgeable one, regardless of the reasons for your knowledge." He said. "This door will lead you to the first floor. I wish you luck on your journey."

Both myself and Seifer pointed our gunblades at the man again.

"You never said who you were and why you're here." I grunted. "I'd rather not get stabbed in the back for trusting someone who hasn't told us anything."

"Yeah." Seifer smirked. "For all we know, you could be using us to do the dirty work of fighting our way to the shrine, only for you to do something freaky."

The man smiled at me.

"My name is Prescott. And as for why I am here? I am bound to this place..."

And with that, he just vanished. No puff of smoke, no bang, not even a sound. It was as if he was never there to begin with.

"What a weirdo." Seifer commented, moving to the door. "Though if this is the Earthgift Shrine, then I am not looking forward to this."

"Something else the legends say about this place." I asked.

"Only that there is nothing about the 5 floors we have to go through." He said. "It changes every time someone enters. I could tell you what the legend of the Light Warriors said about this place, but it wouldn't be what we'll encounter."

"Figures." I muttered, opening the door. "Truce?"

"Truce." Seifer agreed.

I stepped through the door, and instantly felt a pressure in my head. I pressed a hand against my forehead, moving forwards.

_You are entering forbidden territory, kupo. We should not be here._

I groaned, staggering a few steps, before slamming my palm into my temple, getting the moogle to shut up. I turned to witness Seifer doing the same thing.

"What summon you got?" I groaned.

"Fenrir. If my partner were here, he has Griever. You?"

"Choco-mog."

Seifer grunted, looking around.

"Something tells me that we won't be able to relay on either summon here." He commented at last. "They don't want us here."

"Forbidden territory." I quoted.

Seifer nodded.

"And would you look at that. There's the welcoming party. "

I looked down the passageway, easily spotting the large number of imp-like creatures charging towards us, brandishing butcher's knives. I readied my gunblade in my usual stance, watching from the corner of my eye as Seifer got into his classic fencer's stance.

"I say we just cut through and just get to the exit as quickly as we can." I hissed.

For a second, it looked like Seifer would argue against me, but then he nodded.

"Agreed. I've fought these types before; they're easy enough in smaller numbers, but in a group that large..."

I grunted, and leapt forwards, slicing through a couple of the goblins. Besides me, Seifer span and twirled, a lethal hurricane. We continued to cut through them, moving slowly down the passageway. Despite killing anything that came near us, we still occasionally got cut. One cut too many, and Seifer stopped, an orange glow around the Hyperion.

"Go!" He ordered me, before unleashing his limit break on the group.

I sprinted down the corridor, quickly finding a set of stairs, headed downward. Not looking back at Seifer, I leapt down the stairs, away from the large number of Goblins that ignored Seifer and continued after me. I landed with a grunt, and immediately regretted it, as I stood up sharply, spitting the sand out of my mouth.

"Oh, please God, tell me you're kidding me." I muttered, eyes wide as I caught my surroundings.

I was standing in the middle of a desert that stretched out in all directions. Looking behind me revealed that there was no set of stairs that I could use to return to the cave. In fact, there was no sign of Mount Nibel, no sign of anything. Sand and sky was all that I could see for miles on end.

Well, on the bright side, at least the temperature couldn't affect me.

I took a hesitant step forwards, and hurt a small thump, along with some curses. Turning, I spotted Seifer, laying on his back, looking skyward, shocked. I moved towards him, cautiously. He sat up, staring at the desert, confused.

"You have got to be fucking with me." He cursed, jumping to his feet.

"Nope. Desert as far as the eye can see." I said, sarcastically.

"How'd we end up in Corel Desert?" He asked.

"It ain't. Look around, I don't see the Gold Saucer anywhere, and you can see that place from the outskirts of Corel Desert." I informed him.

"Shit." Seifer cursed. "And we have to find a stairwell somewhere in the middle of a desert? We'll be long gone from this heat before we've searched ever inch of this place."

"Correction: you'll be long gone. I can survive longer then you in this heat; it's starvation and thirst that'll do me in."

Seifer cursed again, before picking a random direction and marching. Sighing, I shook my head and followed after him. No sense in splitting up, in this desert, we'd never find each other again.

Two hours later, and we were still walking. Seifer wasn't doing too well. He'd regularly take a sip of potion, to both get some liquid inside of him, and to help with the sunburn. If he kept up like this...

"Seifer, stop." I commanded.

"Why? We have to keep going. Need to find the stairwell."

"If you keep this up, you're going to wear yourself out. Either that, or you'll get heat stroke, and I have no idea whether potions can help with that."

To his credit, Seifer stopped, realizing the truth in my words. Sighing, he moved to a nearby tree and sat down in its shade, closing his eyes.

"Damned desert." He muttered.

"I hear ya." I commented. "I prefer rain forests myself. At least there's more to look at than sand with the occasional trees."

The mercenary gave a weak chuckle, shutting his eyes. A few seconds later, he was breathing deeply, almost snoring. That hike through the desert had worn him to exhaustion. I don't blame him, I'm tired myself, but I didn't have the disadvantage of sweating and all those other human traits.

If anything, the lizard in me is enjoying the heat.

I took the opportunity to think about my current situation. Trapped in the middle of an endless desert, with Seifer, looking for a set of stairs. There has to be one, it seems rather anti-climatic to fight our way through one floor, just to appear in a desert to die. Wait, maybe that's it. The first floor was a test of endurance. This floor is a test of intelligence. But then, what's to think about, there's nothing but sand and trees.

Trees that always appear in groups of three.

Turning around sharply, I examined the trees. Yes, same here. Three trees, all of which look exactly the same. Creepy actually, never seen trees that look **exactly **the same before. The three together formed the points of a triangle, with one point further away from the other two, forming an isosceles. It almost looked like it was an arrow.

Maybe that was what we had to do; follow the trees. Well, we've got nothing better to try. When Seifer wakes up, we'll follow the trees. Assuming I'm able to convince him that doing so could hardly be any worse then just walking in a random direction until we die of starvation, or worse.

Now, seeing as something warm and wet is on my arm, accompanied by a low growling noise, I think I might have more pressing matters to attend to.

I spun around, tail whipping whatever it was behind me. The monster was red, with a scorpion tail, and pincers. Once it realized that it had been seen, it burrowed under the sand. I took several steps back, uncertain as to whether it had run away, or whether it was just being sneaky. I got my answer when there was an explosion of sand, and the Deserpede launched itself through the air towards me.

With reflexes I hadn't had before this whole adventure started, I pivoted around, using my enemy-skill materia. Once again, I wound up breathing fire on a hapless monster, though it was probably a bad move to use when said monster happens to be flying through the air towards you. A very bad idea.

Yelping, I threw myself to the ground, avoiding the flaming corpse. Jumping to my feet, I spotted another Deserpede moving towards the still sleeping Seifer. I pulled Talon free of its sheathe and fired several rounds at the ugly insect. The monster bug made a few sounds that made its annoyance obvious and moved towards me, tail reared and ready to strike. I didn't give it the chance and sliced my gunblade through its tail, leaving a stump behind.

With a screech of pain, the Deserpede burrowed underground. After remaining on guard for a minute, I finally let my guard down.

"Not bad kid." Seifer spoke up.

"How long you been awake?" I asked.

"When you fired your gunblade. That thing is loud enough to wake the dead."

I grunted, stabbing the burnt insect to make sure that it was dead.

"I think I might know how to find the stairs." I said at last.

Seifer perked up at the sound of that.

"How?" He asked, eagerly.

"When you're fit to go, I'll lead the way." I told him, deciding to not tell him that I was going to be following trees.

"I'm good whenever you are." Seifer grunted, getting to his feet. "The sooner we get out of this desert, the better."

"The sooner we leave this shrine the better." I corrected him.

Once Seifer was back on his feet, we started walking, me leading.

"Tell me more about the Soul Shrines." I said at last.

"What's to say?" He countered.

"Well, you knew that this was the Earthgift Shrine just by the location, and that it would have five floors..."

Seifer gave me a 'hmm' sound as he thought about what to say.

"The Earthgift Shrine, as the name implied, is the Shrine where the Earth Crystal was found." Seifer started. "Obviously, that means that this whole shrine has an affinity was the earth. That's how I knew this one was Earthgift. Don't get much more earthy then the lower parts of Mount Nibel."

"And the others?" I asked, curious.

"The other shrines are Hellfire Chasm, Lifespring Grotto and Whisperwind Cove." Seifer explained. "It's pretty bloody obvious which shrine is connected to which element. Hellfire Chasm has ten floors, Lifespring Grotto has twenty floors, and Whisperwind Cove has forty floors. As well as an increasing number of floors, the challenges are also increasingly difficult."

"Can't think of any place that would fit the elements of the other three shrines." I mused, thinking.

"Well, Lifespring Grotto is probably underwater. No way you can get any more water than under the sea. Beats me where the other two could be though."

"Well, it's not like I'm going to go looking for them." I commented. "Besides, what'd be the point? Unless I just happened to go to one as a new Crystal is created."

Seifer nodded, absent-mindedly.

"Not going to happen anytime soon, if what you AVALANCHE guys say about Mako Reactors is true."

That's true. With no mako, no energy for the Planet to use to create new Crystals. That's food for thought. I wonder what the world would be like, if new Crystals are formed. No more need for Materia, if their return brings magic back to the hands of us mere mortals.

Heh, Yuffie would lose her job.

I almost didn't notice it when we neared an oasis. If a certain lizard hadn't pointed it out, I would have likely walked into the water. Seifer seemed happy. Once he'd tested whether or not the oasis was real and not a mirage, he leapt in, head first.

Don't blame him. The heat was starting to get to me. Still, at least I was more controlled about it. I simply sat at the edge and took a long drink, before relaxing for a while. By the side of the oasis lay our staircase. We could afford a rest before leaving this desert behind for good.

The next floor looked like a forest. Only everything had a purple hue about it. It looked like someone was forcing me to wear purple tinted shades. The sky was purple, the grass was pinkish, and the trees were maroon.

"Wonder how this floor will turn out." I wondered, aloud. "Will we need brains or brawn."

"Brawn if that guy is anything to go by." Seifer replied, smirk evident in his voice.

I followed his gaze and my sight rested upon a skeleton wearing chain mail armour. The skeleton yelled out and charged at us, swinging a rather vicious looking scimitar. With a sigh, Seifer swung the Hyperion, knocking the skull from the rest of the skeleton's body. The skull rolled along the ground before coming to a rest against a maroon tree.

"Hey! That was uncalled for, that was." The skull complained.

Both Seifer and myself shared a freaked out look with each other, before turning to face the skull.

"Ok, that is freaky." Seifer commented.

"So's your face." The skull snapped.

"This coming from a talking, decapitated skull."

"Well, you did just decapitate me." Skull-y snorted. "So yeah, this coming from a talking decapitated skull."

"You mind pointing us towards the way out." I asked.

"No I bloody well will not. You decapitated me; I don't think I'm entitled to do jack all for you."

I shrugged, turned away.

"Fine by me. Good like with the rest of your... err... unlife."

Waving dismissively, I walked away from the skull, ignoring the storm of curses and swears that were sent my way in retaliation. Something along the lines of no longer being able to enjoy having an unlife when having nobody to enjoy it with. Not my problem.

The forest trail was a worn dirt path, marking the general direction. So roughly half an hour we walked, without incident, when we came to a fork in the path, leading off in all the various directions on the compass. So much for having a clear path to the exit.

Murphy's Law also dictates that something else must go wrong.

I wished that I could kill Murphy myself for his stupid law, when from the trees, a small army of skeletons charged forwards, bellowing a war cry that clearly said that they were trying too hard to be masculine.

They failed, miserably.

But still, despite their shortcomings with their war cries, there were still a large number of them, and each one had a scimitar and a desire to use it. The numbers were stacked against us, but then again, if all of these things had the same level of skill as Skully back there, then that actually means that they're an even match with these numbers.

Seifer and I readied ourselves, standing back to back as the skeletons surrounded us.

"This'll be fun." Seifer smirked.

"You have a warped sense of fun." I felt obligated to point out.

"Nah, you're just a stick in the mud."

Well, at least he didn't call me chicken-wuss, that'd mean that he was actually trying to insult me. He'd fail, since I've heard far worse, but then, this is Seifer, so whatever.

The skeletons chose that moment to charge.

Grunting, I parried a slash from the first skeleton to reach me, and delivered a swift kick, sending the undead warrior flying back. No chance to brag about my awesome skills though, since three more came to replace the one I'd just knocked back.

The key problem with standing back to back with Seifer like this is that even though we're making sure that nothing attacks us from behind, if either of us were to dodge rather than block an attack, we'd be getting each other killed very swiftly. It wasn't too much of a problem against these skeleton warriors, since they were all bone and no muscle, quite literally, but when they had the advantage of numbers; it gets a tad difficult to block each and every attack, especially if they all attacked at once.

For instance, such as now.

Giving several choice swears under my breath, I swung Talon around to intercept the nearest blade, while my right hand caught the wrist of the second skeleton, and I twisted around driving my foot into the shoulder of the third.

The kick had enough power in it to send the skeleton's sword arm flying off, leaving a very confused skeleton to look at the stump that was all that remained of his arm. Meanwhile, I twisted my arm around; sending the skeleton whose wrist was in my grip to the floor, and slammed my tail into the grounded warrior. All that remained was the skeleton whose blade was caught in a deadlock against mine. That was easily solved by sliding my blade so that the end was pointed at the skull of said skeleton, and pulling the trigger.

There was no time to rest however, as the skeletons I'd taken out were replaced with more of them. Sighing, I drove my blade into ribcage of the next skeleton to approach, before forcefully wrenching it out to the side, cutting a second one in half. Grunting, I focused on my Materia.

Since Skully had essentially told us that the skeletons understood plain English, I didn't utter the name of the spell. This made it more difficult to cast, but at least any possible defence against it would be negated by the fact that they had no idea what spell I was casting.

Matra Magic is incredibly weird. It sort of summons missiles which start bombarding the enemy, and I don't mean the spell's form looks similar to missiles, I mean it literally is summoning missiles. Apparently, the design for the missile was stolen from ancient magic powers.

Yeah, some of the magic on Gaia is seriously fucked up. Watch as I cast a spell known since the time of knights in shining armour… MISSILES!

Ignoring the fact that I cast a spell that involved launchinging a number of warheads at skeleton warriors, the spell actually did a fair job of slowing the swarm down, as well as cutting down a small percentage of their number. Ok, not by much, but it still helps.

Apparently Seifer was inspired by my use of magic, because I started to feel the static in the air of another spell being cast. A quick glance over my shoulder showed that the Blonde's scarred face was screwed up in concentration. Must be a powerful spell, or else he just sucks at spell-casting. Figuring that he needed time to cast the spell, I went back to concentrating on the skeletons, who had used the time to regroup and press the attack.

Frowning, I shot at a couple of the skeletons on front of the group, before they got too close to be able to focus on firing at them.

I had to fight the urge to duck rather than parry the first scimitar that came towards me, since I still had Seifer stood behind me, trying to cast whatever spell it was he planned on using. Once I had disposed of the first skeleton, the time for finesse was over as they began to crowd me, scimitars at the ready.

Thankfully, there were so many of them, I didn't even need to bother aim my slashes and stabs, skeletons were caught anyway.

After a minute of this, I was tiring, but then the air began to feel heavy, and I know that it wasn't my exhaustion. The static in the air increased with the air becoming so heavy it was difficult to breath. And then Seifer thrust his palm out.

The sky darkened until it was virtually pitch black, and then it started to rain. Only this rain wasn't water. This was far worse then raining cats and dogs. It was raining rocks. Comets to be exact, dozens of comets came raining down, destroying all that stood in their path.

After the rain of comets stopped, Seifer fell to his kneels, panting. But that was alright, since the skeleton army had been destroyed by the comet shower.

"Dark Sky, the upgraded form of Comet." Seifer eventually managed to say. "I hate using that spell, takes nearly everything I have to cast it."

"Sounds like you wouldn't be able to cast Ultima." I commented idly.

"I wish." Seifer snorted. "Only the best can use Ultima. Technically, I shouldn't even be able to use Dark Sky, but I never did like listening to the rules of the world. But if Dark Sky does this to me when I cast it, I'm not going to try my luck with Ultima."

"Ouch. Remind me to stay away from the high end stuff." I winced.

_Ok, so no using Ultima, probably no using Comet… I wonder whether I can use Flare… wait…_

"But isn't Eden one of the most powerful summon entities known to man?"

"Summons are a slight exception to the rule. Ok, I can't summon Eden for more than a single attack, but I **can** summon Eden."

I nodded, accepting his words. Who'd have thought, Seifer was helping me understand some of the background details on using magic. Before now, the most I'd known was how to cast them and that using too much too quickly without ethers in between was Bad with a capital 'B'. And people wonder why I generally make a point of avoiding the spell-casting. Leave that to the magically competent.

I opened my mouth to make a remark of some kind, but before I had a chance to even consider what it was that would be leaving my gob, a loud crack echoed through the forest. This crack was accompanied by a sudden pressure on my ankle.

Looking down at my ankle as quickly as I could, I instantly spotted the cause of the pressure. A skeletal hand had risen from the ground in a twisted parody of a plant, and latched itself onto my ankle. I reached inside my coat, hand managing to brush against the handle of my gunblade, before the hand descended back underground, and taking my foot, and by extension, me, along for the ride.

It stopped pulling so hard once I was waist deep in the ground, though it continued to tug, so I was still slowly sinking ever deeper.

"Fuck!"

Swearing, Seifer dove towards me, grabbing my hand. Once he had an iron grip, he began to pull, slowing down my sinking, but not stopping or, even better, reversing my current momentum. Cursing repeatedly, I pushed against the ground with the hand that Seifer wasn't pulling against, trying to help him in stopping my current situation.

It all seemed to be in vain, as another sharp tug managed to send me even deeper into trouble than I already was. And by this point, I was starting to get just a little bit desperate.

"Help me!" I screamed, struggling with everything I had.

Ok, so maybe a little was a little bit of an understatement, but in all seriousness, I was being pulled under the ground by a skeleton. In these circumstances, I'd like to see anybody else manage to remain calm.

Vincent doesn't count. It's hard to tell whether or not he even has emotions at this point, always speaking in that monotone voice…

Ok, shifting a little from the point, but by this point I'm trying not to panic too much. How much is 'too much' is debatable. I'm thinking too much is the moment I start hyperventilating, but others may beg to differ. I would then be inclined to disagree, before forcing them into the situation that I'm currently in just to see whether or not they manage to retain such opinions.

Another sharp and I was now up to my armpits deep in the ground.

"Do something!" I yelled at Seifer.

"I **am** doing something!" The blond yelled back.

"Well do more!" I commanded in retaliation.

"So sorry; I left my shovel in my other coat's pocket!" Seifer snapped.

Yet another tug and I was submerged under the ground, the only thing left above ground being the arm that Seifer continued to tug against.

Seeing as my face was now buried, I suppose that it really doesn't matter whether or not I panic too much, seeing as I can't breathe at the moment regardless. It was pitch black, so I couldn't see anything, not that there would be much to see anyway. Dirt, dirt and oh, what is that? Dirt!

I felt another tug and I was now completely submerged. I couldn't feel Seifer's grip, so he hadn't been dragged under with me. No, he wouldn't have been stupid enough to willingly let himself befall the same fate as me. So, I was to die through suffocation, buried in the middle of a forest deep within a mythological cave.

Oh yeah, a death to brag about till the end of time.

Strangely, I felt another tug, and then all I saw was a bright white light.

It was actually an upgrade from before, seeing as now, I at least had the ability to **breathe**. Though how much better, I have yet to determine. Where was I, and how did I get here from being buried in the ground.

All I could hear was the beating of my heart.

_**Thump**__**-thump.**_

_**Thump-thump.**_

_**Thump-thump.**_

A sudden swirl of colour in this wide expanse, though I couldn't be sure whether it was real, or just my eyes playing tricks on me, due to having stared at nothing but this endless white for so long.

No, it was definitely real, since it just returned, and I heard a faint humming with it.

The swirl of colours approached me, and I felt a faint warmth from it. Then I was suddenly somewhere else. It looked like I was in the streets of Midgar to be precise. Empty streets of Midgar, but the streets of Midgar nonetheless.

"Yo kid." A voice said. "No slacking off."

I spun around, trying to see who had just spoken to me, but found nobody. Though now that I thought about it, besides sounding familiar, for a reason I cannot begin to understand, there was a feeling that I wasn't alone here.

"Forgive me." A new voice, this one completely unfamiliar.

But then that feeling of being watched faded away, leaving me alone again.

Well what was I supposed to do here? Stand around looking like a prat? No, I'm going to walk to the one building of significance in Midgar and see if I can figure out what is happening.

I'm taking an educated guess that I'm not actually in Midgar. Of course, this educated guess works on the assumption that Gaia still follows the same general set of rules as if it were still a game.

If I walk in and learn that I really was transported to Midgar, then I am going to be so incredibly screwed.

_Wow, way to inspire myself._

I waited for a snide comment from the lizard within, but got nothing. On concentrating, I found that he was absent from my mind, a strange feeling, since I'd long grown used to his constant presence.

It was always reassuring knowing that I was never truly alone.

Now I was.

Oh, is this going to be like that freaky dream I had back in the Shinra Tower? The one that I had while reportedly 'dead'?

If I encounter any funky mirrors with disembodied voices being annoying, then I am going to smash each and every one of them. Who knows, maybe the source of the disembodied voice is behind one of them.

I reached the entrance to the Shinra Tower and took a step through the doors, to appear in the middle of Cosmo Canyon. The place was empty, except for a kid standing near the flame of the Cosmo Candle. Shaking my head, I moved towards the dark haired youth and came to a stop several paces away from him. The boy seemed to realize that he was no longer alone, and turned around to face me.

He was dressed in very plain clothing. A white t-shirt and jeans. He didn't wear any footwear though.

Besides the pale skin, the only remarkable thing about his appearance was his eyes. Apart from being an almost unnatural shade of orange, they held a wisdom that not even Bugenhagen had managed to achieve, even with his one hundred plus age. Such wisdom didn't fit with the image of a child.

"So you're the one." The boy remarked, tilting his head slightly.

"And you are?" I asked.

"You'll know soon enough." The boy answered, waving my question aside. "We'll meet, sooner rather than later. But will it be as partners, or a passing acquaintance, is the question."

"What are you talking about? Are we not meeting right here and now?"

"We are, but not really. Technically, none of this is real. But, it will be as real as you let it."

I was silent, examining the boy. There was a sense of familiarity about him, but I couldn't place my finger on why. And I had already ruled out his being another games console. He didn't have that same presence as Jade and Maria. No, his presence was more powerful in its own right, yet dwarfed by the two beings who were more or less the gods of this world.

"It's alright to cry." The kid suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"Crying. I've found that it can sometimes help." The boy shrugged.

"I have no reason to cry." I answered.

"You will." Was the cryptic response.

I didn't get a chance to reply to that odd statement, as the boy turned and walked away, fading into the air.

For a minute, I was left all alone, with only the sounds of the Cosmo Candle as my company, before the scene melted away to a place I was familiar with, but hadn't seen for a long time.

I was stood in the yard of my school back home. Like everywhere else, it was empty, void of any sign of life. I took a step forwards, looking around at the sight, remembering the small details that such a long absence had made me forget, such as the dent in the fence where some idiot and run headfirst into, or the football that was stuck on the edge of the roof of the main building, as it had been for months.

All those little details that had left me.

I heard a footstep and spun around, tensed. There, behind me was a group of four. I could tell instantly that they were not from the so-called real world. The most noticeable proof of this was the shortest member of the group. He was a Black Mage, shroud hiding his face and glowing yellow eyes and all.

The tallest of the group looked at me and nodded.

"So, this is your world." The one dressed on green stated, looking around in wonder.

"I would criticize this place, but I know nothing of the way your world works." The Black Mage claimed, crossing his arms.

The one dressed in a white cloak, with the hood pulled up chuckled, seeing my discomfort.

"Fear not, for we are allies." She said, reassuringly.

Strangely, I believed her words.

The tallest one finally spoke up, looking the most serious.

"Hard times approach, and we can do little to help. Stay strong and you'll be fine. We'll meet again." He finished before the group vanished in the blink of an eye.

Again, I was alone. Shrugging, I turned and kicked a football that had rolled up to me by the wind. The ball sailed through the air before smashing one of the school windows.

"Oops."

As if the window smashing was the trigger, the world seemed to explode and I was back in the white void from before. Only there was a shadow, a silhouette of a being before me. I got the impression that the being was examining me as if I were a piece of meat.

"**You don't look very promising, yet I have to wonder."** The being said in a distorted voice.

"What are you?" I asked.

My answer was pain. The being clearly didn't like being spoken to, and sent a fist to my temple. Blinking away the spots that formed in my field of vision, I tried to focus on the being, unable to focus properly. I could see darkness forming at the edge of my vision. I was losing consciousness.

I wonder whether it's a normal occurrence to recognise that you are indeed about to black out.

"**Little lizards should speak only when addressed to by their betters."**

"Up yours." I managed to utter before I blacked out.

I awoke, still in the void, but at least this time these was no sign of the being. I considered casting Cure on the bruise I could feel forming on my temple, but didn't get the chance before the scenery changed from white void to sterile lab… with me strapped to the cold metal table in the centre of the lab.

I struggled against the leather straps that held me down, paying no mind to the fact that me clothes had vanished. Time and a place for everything. My nudity had to take a backseat to the fact that I was strapped to a table in a lab.

Footsteps echoed through the air, and I turned my head to see Professor Hojo walking towards me. He was speaking into a small recorder, yet no sound seemed to escape his lips. I renewed my struggle against my bindings, getting desperate to escape. Hojo seemed to ignore my struggle, continuing to talk with no sound into his recorder.

This carried on for five minutes, before I managed to exhaust myself. It was as if that was the sign Hojo had been waiting for, because he chose that moment to advance, pulling forth a scalpel. I watched in morbid fascination as the small blade neared my body. It stopped just as it touched my flesh, and I flinched as I felt its coolness. I swallowed, shutting my eyes.

The blade pierced my flesh, and I screamed.

A flash of light, and was back in the void… though still lacking in the clothes department, but right then, I really didn't care, as I pressed my hands against where I had felt the scalpel cut into me. There was no physical sign of injury, but the pain was still there, still bad enough that it felt as though the scalpel was still there, still cutting…

I didn't get a chance to recover before another flash of light and I was somewhere else.

This time I was on the cargo ship from Junon to Costa Del Sol, and I was in the same position I'd been just after Sephiroth had cut my eye open. Sephiroth was stood over me, looking towards the ceiling as I remembered him doing after he'd cut my eye, but this time, he didn't retreat into the engine room. He actually stayed to thrust the Masamune through my chest before leaving.

I tried to stop, but despite my efforts, a strangled cry managed to escape me before I was once again returned to the void.

This time I didn't even get a chance to recover before being forced into a new place. This time back in the real world, an alleyway I had to pass through every day to get to school. Only this was the time I was assaulted by a so-called 'well 'ard guy'. This time though, the entire gang of dropouts joined in.

I tried to fend them off, but somehow I couldn't gather the strength, and they easily overpowered me. I felt bones breaking in their assault, and eventually blacked out as a brick connected with my skull.

I woke up, not in the void, but in yet another place where I felt pain.

And it continued like this. For longer than I cared to count. And it wasn't just physical pain. In many ways, the words cut deeper than the physical pain ever did. Words that I once had to put up with every day returned full force, and I was no longer shielding myself from their cutting edge.

"Freak."

"Bastard."

"Retard."

And so on.

And all I could do was endure it.

I finally got respite, when I appeared, no longer in the body of a teenager, but of the small insecure child that I felt like. Later, when I thought back to this moment, in a rough guess, I would put my current form as being six or seven years old.

I blinked, looking around, whimpering.

"Why hurt me?" I whispered.

Silence was my answer.

"Why hurt me?" I repeated, shivering. "What did I do wrong?"

Whispers filled the air. Hateful whispers that sent me laying myself on the floor and curling myself into a ball, as if it would be sufficient to shield me from the cutting words.

I heard a chanting, and the whispers fled, scared of this new development. I sobbed, certain that this new development only meant more pain for me. It wasn't until I heard a familiar and comforting voice.

"Oh, young one."

I looked up, and spotted the familiar form of Xenor, only looking more blue/purple then usual, his eyes luminous blue rather then the usual red.

Sniffing, I got up and ran to Xenor, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face in his shoulder.

"Don't leave me Xenie…" I sniffed.

I felt Xenor rub my back soothingly, and I heard a voice in my mind.

'_It's alright to cry.'_

At first, I thought it was actually being said to my mind, but then, even in my current state, I realized that it was nothing more than a memory of the kid I'd met in the Cosmo Canyon recreation.

And he had offered advice that seemed very good at that moment in time.

And it was with that, that for the first time in years, I let myself cry.

Xenor continued to rub my back soothingly, chanting something that I vaguely recognised from my childhood, but I didn't. More of those false memories. Just another thing that seems to be going wrong in my life. Just another thing to cry about.

I continued like this until I eventually fell asleep.

* * *

I awoke with a gasp, fist flying towards Seifer's mug, before I recognised him, and managed to stop myself from socking him in the face. The blond backpedalled away from me, relaxing once he realized that I was not about to hit him.

"Fuck happened to you?" He asked, eventually.

"I… I don't know." I shook my head.

"It looked like you were having a seizure." Seifer decided to inform me. "A bad one."

I shook my head, looking up at him in confusion. I decided that telling him about my weird-ass vision or dream or whatever it was wasn't in my current interests. Hell, I wasn't about to tell him anyway. He might be acting civil towards me at the moment, but we are acting under a truce until we get out of here.

"Heh. Spend two weeks looking for you, and I don't even get a thank you." Seifer snorted.

My lips twitched.

"Thank you."

"Forget about it. It was only coincidence that I found you here." He waved aside my thanks. "Whatever flipped out dream you were having when you were freaking out on me must have been depressing though."

I looked at Seifer in confusion, and he put a finger under his eye. I raised a hand to my own eye and felt just under it. My hand came back, wet. Odd, lizards don't have tear ducts.

Must have been one of the human elements that carried over from my metamorphosis.

"You seem different."

I felt different. Lighter. Like I had dropped a weight which had been dragging me down. Maybe crying really does help. Shrugging, I turned to properly look at the blond gunblade wielder.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

Seifer pointed at something behind me. Upon turning around, I spied a gravestone, and an open grave, casket inside, just waiting to be buried. On closer inspection, I could clearly read what was inscribed on the stone.

Jethro 'Spike' Logan

1989-2005

He will be missed by none

That was morbid. Jeez, that was really depressing.

"Couldn't they have at least waited until I was dead before trying to bury me?" I asked, rhetorically.

"You **were** dead." Seifer grunted. "I phoenix downed you. Never seen anyone go into a seizure from being given a phoenix down before though. You allergic or something?"

"No, I've been phoenix downed before with no problems." I answered. "The only problems I ever had was the cause of death."

Not least of which was Cel deciding the test with electro-shock therapy technique on me. Still hurts just thinking about it. I plan on never repeating that situation, it hurt, and it killed me while it was at it. Painfully, I might add.

No, I won't be getting over Cel's fascination with electrocuting people any time soon.

"So, which way to the exit?" I asked.

Seifer pointed over my shoulder. Pivoting around, I easily spotted what he was aiming his finger at. The stairs to the next level were in a clearing just yards away from where we were standing.

"That's… strangely convenient of them; putting my grave right next to the stairs."

"Maybe they wanted me to find you." Seifer grunted. "Like you were a prize for enduring this place."

"Didn't you just say moments ago that you finding me was a coincidence?"

The blond seemed to lose his cool at having his earlier words contradict his current words, and he was forced to spend a moment thinking.

"I don't know. How should I know what the logic behind this cave is? I said before, the only thing I know about these places, is that the Crystals were originally discovered in these caves… supposedly."

"Nice save; your reputation as a bad-ass is intact." I muttered, sarcastically.

"Look, whatever. Can we just get the hell out of here? Two weeks in this forest is two weeks too long."

"I've really been out of it for two weeks?"

"Yeah. Thankfully, despite the number of walking skeletons, this forest still has wildlife."

That **is** something he should be thankful for. Starvation is probably one of those un-revivable deaths, since technically speaking, starvation is a pretty natural way to die. Unpleasant, but the body and likely the spell/phoenix down would recognise it as the body dying naturally.

That brings to mind a point. Suicide is near impossible here in Gaia. Seriously, if some guy hangs himself, or puts a bullet in his own brain, just bring out the crate of phoenix downs and voila. You'd have to have a pretty messy death if you're genuinely serious about taking your own life, since how else would you cause enough damage to be unhealable.

Ok, I'm breaking this chain of thought, since I don't want to gross myself out.

Seifer took my silence as an invitation to bugger off. Ok, he was only going to the stairs, but still. Considering I'd been dragged, quite literally, six feet under, he could at least be more cautious about leaving me alone, lest we experience a repeat performance.

I caught up with Seifer just as he proceeded down the stairs. Muttering, I followed him and left the forest, for yet another cave. The only difference that I could see from the first cave we'd fought through was the fact that the path split into four directions, and I could see more junctions down each path.

Oh great, a maze, as if we couldn't get enough of those.

And judging by Seifer's scowl, he agreed with me. Then again, I doubt his patience would allow for him to like the prospect of trudging through a maze without already knowing the path to take. I was probably the type that cheated on those drawn mazes as a kid.

"You know what the sad thing is?" I spoke up, as a thought entered my head.

Seifer gave me a look before shaking his head.

"We can't just use the whole only turn right strategy for this maze, since the flight of stairs might be in any dead end in the entire maze."

The blond blinked, before muttering several choice words.

"Thanks, and there I was about to suggest we only turn right." He finally moaned.

"I suppose that makes this floor the test of 'try not to get too lost while every god in the cosmos laughs at your misfortune'."

"Yeah, well fuck every god in the cosmos."

"Oh, and this maze just got worse." I decided to mention.

"How?"

"Look behind you."

Seifer did so and swore, pulling out his gunblade as a small group of imps Imps charging us, knives being waved like these was no tomorrow.

"Oh I just love mazes. Don't you?" I hissed, already feeling a certain amount of hatred for this floor.

I would put it at a day later that we found the staircase. Little had happened as we'd trekked through the maze. We walked, we bumped into Imps, we killed Imps, and repeat, except for the times we had to rest.

At the site of the stairs, I gave a small cheer, and then leapt headfirst down them, eager to escape the maze for once and for all. Ok, leaping down headfirst was probably not the best idea, but it wasn't like I'd broken anything.

I was a little disappointed that it was another cave, but then, from what I could see, it was just a large hall, with a large structure reaching up to the ceiling in the centre.

"Well, what do you think we have to do here?" Seifer asked.

A loud roar was heard, and the sound of rusted metal being scraped together followed after. A quick look at my surroundings revealed the cause. Four large metal gates were opening. Something told me that I wasn't going to like what I was about to witness.

I knew I was right when the over-sized dog with three heads entered from one of the new openings.

Sometimes, I hate being right.

* * *

An:

This chapter was something of an eperiment that I wanted to try for a while. I've already found ways to include characters from other Final Fantasies into IWGH2, but what of locations? Granted, I've mentioned Ivalice as being a completely different continent, but I meant as more than a passing mention. The Earthgift Shrine was one of the bonus dungeons in the FF1 remakes for GBA and PSP (I own the latter, and had the former on emulator ages back), so I wondered if I could find a way to include them. I have a plan involving them, but if you, the audience disagrees with the concept, then the Earthgift Shrine will be the last you'll hear of it.

And sorry for the 3 hour delay. Lost track of what day it was.


	28. One Born with the Heart of a Dragon

Chapter 27: One Born With the Heart of the Dragon

There are times when I wonder what it was that I'd done that was so bad in my past life that karma decided that it would screw me over. It must have been something, because with the way my life has been going, I'm beginning to suspect that I was someone as bad as Jack the Ripper. Hell, for all I knew, I was the reincarnated Jack the Ripper.

It would explain my karma, certainly.

The reason karma has screwed me over? Oh, I'm just thinking that it's the giant three-headed dog, also known as Cerberus, which happened to be entering the cavern, all three heads growling and snarling.

And as if that wasn't enough? Oh look, a two headed dragon is coming out to join its fellow multi-headed cousin. And a giant winged eyeball… ok, that one is just weird. But then last, slithering in, was a large snake-like creature, but with the torso of a female humanoid. The **naked** body of a female humanoid.

The she-snake looked over me and Seifer and scoffed.

"So you are the two mortals who managed to survive the previous 4 floors. Most disappointing. You're barely worth the effort it'll take to crush you."

Wow, someone was confident in their abilities.

"Fuck you, snake-whore!" Seifer exclaimed.

"Very tactful." I commented, wry grin on my face.

The she-snake glowered at Seifer, slithering closer to him.

"You dare speak in such a manner to me?" She asked; her eyes narrowed. "Do you know who I am?"

"Yea, a snake-whore, as he said." I commented. "Seriously, would it kill you to put some clothes on?"

The she-snake turned her glare towards me, but paused as Seifer spoke up.

"Even Marilith wore more than you, and all she ever wore was a bra."

The she-snake let out a low hiss.

"Marilith?" I asked, turning to look at Seifer.

"The Fiend of Fire. A six-armed, red skinned, snake woman."

"Interesting. I'm going to assume by her title that she was a pyromaniac."

"Oh yeah. The Warriors of Light easily beat her because the Black Mage of the party just cast blizzard spells on her, which had twice the effect, snakes being reptiles."

I snorted.

"Hah. So much for that Fiend."

Apparently, she-snake didn't like being ignored, because she gave a hearty hiss and swiped her tail at Seifer, who jumped over the tail with a curse.

"Wait your turn snake-whore!" He shouted, giving the she-snake a look that implied that she was beneath him.

"Fools, you are in the presence of the Mother of all Monsters!" She-snake cried out.

Seifer gave her a quick once-over, before making a sound of amusement.

"You're Echidna? I expected something more impressive." He claimed. "All I see is a snake-whore."

The she-snake, Echidna, snarled, throwing her arm skywards. For a second, there was nothing, but then the air felt heavy, as Echidna put her energies into a powerful spell.

"Get down!" Seifer cried out, diving to the floor.

I followed his example, and not a moment too soon, as shortly after, the room was engulfed in a bright flash. I felt heat from whatever the attack was brush over me, before everything was normal again. Staggering to my feet, I noticed that Echidna was missing.

I also noticed that the Cerberus was charging towards me, all three heads growling.

"Crappit." I managed to utter, before leaping back to avoid being crushed by the three headed dog's massive paw. "Wrong species pup, maybe if I were an anthromorphic fox instead of a lizard."

The hell-hound clearly didn't appreciate the taunt, as it started to try and swat at me with its paws. Cursing, I dodged the first two swats, before jabbing my gunblade into the soft padded underside of Cerberus' paw, causing a very normal dog-like yelp to exit all three heads of the hell-hound.

While Cerberus was distracted, I looked around for Seifer, ready to tear him a new one for leaving me to fight a giant three headed dog by myself. When I saw him, any anger I had towards him faded as I realized that he had it worse than I did. The blond was defending himself against the two-headed dragon, and the floating eye, which looked to be a very regal looking Ahriman.

Any other thoughts I might have had were forced to take a backseat as Cerberus decided that he was going to make me suffer for the pain I dealt its foot.

I was forced to leap sideways in order to avoid the large maw snapping at me. I landed in a roll which immediately had to be converted into a somersault in order to avoid a second jaw from catching me. The middle head tried to catch me while I was still in the air, but was clearly unprepared for me to stab it with my blade as it neared.

The gunblade embedded in the centre head's snout, I was left dangling from my weapon in front of the mouth of the middle head, feeling its warm breath wash over me. I had to resist the urge to let go of my weapon and cover my snout while I gagged at the hell-hound's bad breath. Eww, dog breath stinks.

I swung sideways, attempting to gain enough momentum to dislodge my gunblade from the giant hell-hounds snout. My timing couldn't have come at a better time, since as I swung away from the mouth, the head to the left tried to snap at me, but missed, slamming into the middle head. The force of the impact had the centre head pivoting around, the force of which managed to dislodge my gunblade and send me flying. My flight, however, was short-lived, as I felt something grab my left-wrist.

Looking upwards, I found where Echidna had been hiding. She was hanging from the rafters, and had caught me as I'd been sent flying. It wasn't for benign reasons however, as she proved when the hand that wasn't holding me stretched open, exposing her very sharp nails, which she jabbed at my face.

I managed to catch her wrist before her long and sharp nails could go anywhere near my eyes, which I was certain was their target. However, we were now in a stalemate. I improvised quickly and used her arms to pull myself so that I was actually level with her before I slammed my face into hers, bringing force a shriek. And then she dropped me.

I managed to land on my feet, though I stumbled for a moment before I could regain my balance. Up above, I see Echidna glare down at me, before slithering off; using the rafters to stay out of harms way. Cowardly snake-whore.

That was the least of my concerns though, as a rumbling alerted me to a large monster behind me. Turning around, I found that all three of Cerberus' heads were glaring at me, hatred making the air feel cold.

Discretion is the better part of valour, I decided, and promptly cast matra magic, which divided the missiles between all three heads. Considering having a handful of missiles blowing up in all three heads a good enough distraction, I turned and ran, trying to put some distance between it and me. I need a plan, and being snapped at by a giant hell-hound is not a good time or place to be planning.

However, it is never a good time to run into an equally large two headed dragon, which I regrettably, just did. Damn, I thought this thing was trying to kill Seifer? Don't tell me that the blond is dead…

Oh, no, he's not, he's just waving his gunblade around at the Ahriman, which was hovering just outside of his reach.

I had little time to ponder much of anything, as the dragon decided that toasted lizard was on the menu tonight, and exhaled a large volume of fire at me. I managed to shield myself, through some creative use of Blizzara… ok, I just cast it in a way that created a big shield, but it managed to save me. I'm not going to consider how close I was to being roasted alive, it's the fact that I survived that counts.

Turning, I charged at the dragon, tired of this constant diving left, right and centre that I was being forced to do, and swung my gunblade at the dragon… where it got stuck while partway inside one of the dragon's necks. Swearing, I tried to pull it free, but had to give up on noticing that while the head of the neck that I'd just gotten my gunblade stuck in couldn't reach me, the other could, and was trying to be stealthy. If it weren't for my turning around in frustration, I wouldn't have noticed it.

Once again, I was forced to dive aside, my mouth spouting words that would make a sailor blush. Barret would probably just compliment me on the creative use of the Gaian language.

I was now weaponless, and being chased by a giant two-headed dragon, which seemed to think that I'd make a good snack. If I'd thought it would actually do any good, I'd have told it that I was all bones, no meat. Sadly, I doubted the dragon would care.

"Seifer!" I called out, hoping to get a little help here.

Apparently not, since he was still playing around with the Ahriman. Was he really that pathetic? Well, if the fist shaking is anything to go by, than yes, he really was that pathetic.

In an effort to tell me that not paying attention was liable to get me killed, and that it would let it slide this once, the two headed dragon roared at me. The thing was, I was unwilling to take on a monster that had the unfair advantage of being a two-headed dragon, while I had the disadvantage of only being armed with a knife that I hadn't yet pulled free from the sheath.

Maybe I should help out the Billy Idol lookalike.

Ok, that's hardly fair to call him a lookalike of a person he isn't aware exists. I take that back… though he does look vaguely like Billy Idol.

Drawing my knife, I ran away from the oversized two-headed dragon and towards Seifer and the Ahriman, tensing. As I neared, I turned so that I was still heading in their general direction, but directly ahead of me, was a wall. It was a plain looking wall. Made of stone. It was also very hard, so if I ran into it, doubtless, it would hurt quite a bit.

I had no intention of running headfirst into the wall. Nope, I was planning on running feet-first into the wall.

Wall running is a very short-lived experience, contrary to what the Matrix says. Still, it **was** possible, though I was only able to go what, three, four steps before gravity decided that enough was enough.

At least, that was the case since I've been merged with my pet lizard, who is infinitely more athletic than I am. If I tried this before any of this happened, I would have made it half a step before gravity yanked me down, head first.

But at the moment, I wasn't wall running for the sake of wall running… I was wall running so that I had that little bit of extra height when I jumped. And jump I did, just as I felt gravity try to grab me with its icy grip.

I soared, if you can really call it soaring, and managed to catch onto the Ahriman's leg. It was a sure thing, really, I'm just that great…

"Shit, almost missed!" I cursed, dangling from the Ahriman's leg.

Ok, so I exaggerated a little, but it really gets depressing saying 'I barely caught it', 'I managed to hit it, just'. It makes me sound like I can barely do anything. Yes, the things I try to do are insane and were highly likely to fail to begin with, but cut me some slack here.

The point is, I managed to catch hold of the Ahriman's leg, something that the flying eye clearly didn't appreciate. It protested my presence. At least, I believe that the squealing was it protesting, for all I knew, it was welcoming me with open wings.

Regardless of whether it was protesting or not, I pulled myself up the Ahriman's leg, knife poised. The Ahriman gave a different sounding squeal and a bolt of lighting shot past, almost hitting my tail.

"Stop that." I protested. "You'll only zap yourself along with me."

The Ahriman either didn't care, or couldn't understand, since it tried again. Thankfully, it missed again, though I wasn't about to take any chances regarding this thing and its bolts of electricity.

Swinging myself up, I thrust my knife into the eye that made up most of the Ahriman's body mass. A horrible black liquid squirted out of the cut, and the squealing got louder. Snarling, I pulled the knife out and stabbed it in again, this time putting as much force behind it as I could, while at the same time holding onto the leg of the Ahriman so that I didn't fall down.

Still the Ahriman continued to squeal, proving that it was still alive, though its wings weren't beating quite as powerfully as before, gradually lowering us to ground level.

This time, the blinded Ahriman didn't try using lightning bolts to get me off; instead it sucked in some air before exhaling it, in the form of fire. With a yelp of pain, I released my grip on the knife, and was once again simply hanging onto the Ahriman's leg, only this time with the added bonus of a burnt arm.

Counting to ten, backwards, I waited for the pain to fade, before swinging myself back up for take two of stabbing the Ahriman.

Only I needn't have bothered, since the Ahriman was at ground level by that time, letting me grab the knife while it lay on the floor. Yanking the blade out, I swung in back down, stabbing the Ahriman, putting all my weight behind it.

This time, the knife buried itself up to the hilt, and the wailing began to lesson. Another stab and the thing finally died. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the knife out one final time and took in my surroundings. Where had Seifer gone while I killed the flying eyeball? Ah, there he is, taking on the two headed dragon and actually doing rather well now that he didn't also have to worry about being attacked from behind by the Ahriman.

There was something missing though…

I sighed as the growling reached my ears. Turning around, I looked the Cerberus in the eye, while trying to think of a way that I could either escape or, even better, kill this overgrown hell-hound.

Although, I had to wonder where Echidna vanished off to. Was she still in the rafters, or had she gone somewhere else to sulk over being called a snake-whore?

Cerberus gave me little time to ponder on the subject, as it lunged at me, middle head snapping. Side-stepping, I grabbed hold of the head's fur, and when the head jerked back up to its normal position, it launched me upwards, where I grabbed hold of the rafters and swung myself up.

Maybe I can sneak up and just slit the so-called 'mother of all monsters' throat or something. That would be within range of what I could do with this dinky little knife. I turned to look down at Cerberus, which had all three heads looking up at me, growling.

"Down boy." I muttered, turning my attention to whatever was up here in the rafters.

I spotted Echidna, her back turned to me. Her green flesh stuck out, giving me an easy time in finding her. She was watching Seifer battle the dragon intently. So intently, that my earlier thought of just slitting her throat was actually a viable option.

Bending low, I slowly moved towards her, arms reaching out. However, just as I got into a position where I could actually kill her, Cerberus gave a loud, echoing bark, and Echidna spun around. On spotting me, she didn't have even a second's delay in her reaction time. Her reaction to my presence was a right hook to the face that had me staggering backwards, before her tail collided with me, knocking me from the rafters.

Only my tail managed to wrap itself around the beam, and the momentum caused me to just swing back up, albeit, feeling a tad dizzy, having not been prepared to travel in a circle at the speeds that I just had.

Echidna brought her arms up into a position to fight me, before lowering them, giving me a thoughtful look.

"You've proven yourself to be a resourceful foe." She commented, idly.

I didn't lower my guard, if anything, I raised it. I didn't speak.

"You know, there is no need for us to be fighting." She continued, slithering along the rafters in a way that circled me. "You would be an ideal father of all monsters."

Eh, she's **flirting** with me? You have got to be kidding me; she really is a freaking snake-whore. Do I have some kind of note stuck to me that claims that I'm easily wooed? That I would just jump at any woman who shows an interest in me? I am not easy, and I do not jump at the chance to hump the brains out of someone who claims to have an interest in me. I wanted to believe that she was simply trying to get me to lower my guard, like Tia did way back when, but Echidna looked and sounded serious.

Eww…

Echidna came closer, but stopped as I raised my knife higher, making it clear I wasn't having her come any closer. She laughed in response though.

"Don't try to deny it. Picture, you and me, the rulers of all monsters. You'd live life as a king, your every whim easily attainable."

_I'm trying __**not**__ to picture it._

While trying to shake the images from my head, Echidna took advantage of my momentary distraction and rushed towards me. I didn't get the chance to defend myself before she had her arms wrapped tightly around me, pinning the arm that I was holding the knife with to my side.

And then she kissed me.

While I was trying to get over all the feelings of 'yuck' that were coursing through my mind, Echidna forced her tongue into my mouth and began exploring what she felt was her rightful territory. I struggled against her, but she was stronger than she looked, and managed to keep my knife arm pinned to my side. I didn't want to bite her tongue, since I wasn't sure if Echidna's blood would have any diseases that I could catch.

However, when she began to squeeze my rear end while stroking the base of my tail in an erotic manner, I knew I was going to have to take drastic measures.

_Oh God, I'm going to regret this._

Seeing no other alternative, I bit down on the tongue that was invading my mouth. Echidna withdrew with a shriek, and she glared at me.

"Insolent whelp. I do not **require** my mate be willing." She hissed. "Just give in, you may find yourself enjoying it."

"Fuck you, snake-whore." I ground out, spitting a glob of her own blood at her.

She tightened her hold on me, and I found myself gasping for air. I kicked my legs out, and found that she'd also lifted me higher, so I couldn't touch the ground beneath me.

"I could have given you the world if you'd just submitted. Now, you'll just become my property instead."

In my flailing, one of my feet felt the anklet on the other, and while still flailing in order to keep her from getting suspicious, I tried to remember which Materia I had equipped to my anklet. Restore (_no, I don't want to heal her)_, Ice (_not at this proximity, I'll freeze myself while at it) _and Enemy Skill.

"Have you nothing left to say?" Echidna asked, her foot long tongue flicking out and licking my cheek.

Suppressing the shudder of disgust that wanted so badly to course through my body, I offered her a smirk.

"Go to hell." I muttered, before exhaling what air I had left.

Even though I hadn't enough air in my lungs to make a powerful or long lasting flame thrower, at this range, it hardly mattered, especially since she took it in the face.

Screaming, Echidna released me from her grip, and I fell to the ground with a gasp as I tried to take in as much air as I could to satisfy the thirst for oxygen I had as a result of Echidna's bear hug.

Echidna had her back turned to me, her hands covering her face, and the burns I'd obviously left there. Straightening myself, I charged at her, knife swinging.

She must have heard me, because she turned around, arm already flying out to meet me. Instead, her arm met the bite of my knife, and she shrieked, pulling her arm back, and this time tried to tail whip me off the rafters.

Despite my best efforts to dodge, I was still hit by her tail, and fell, but this time, rather than grabbing the rafter with my tail, I wrapped it around Echidna's neck and dragged her down with me. Both of us hit the ground hard. Echidna was the first to get up, but I was quick behind her.

With a snarl, the she-snake cast a high level spell at me. The same one as when this whole deal started. I threw myself to the ground, avoiding the worst of the Flare, but while I was down, I managed to cast Blizzara on her, which prevented her from climbing back into the general safety of the rafters.

I was back on my feet as quickly as I could and thrust my knife through the underside of her jaw, where the blade sliced through the soft tissue before it met the roof of the mouth and continued to slice through that as well, finally meeting the brain of the victim. Apparently not enough of the brain, since she survived what should have killed her.

Echidna screamed, hand clutching the new wound as she glared at me, face burnt and bloodied.

"Just die already." I yelled at her, readying the knife for another round.

She hand intercepted my wrist and held it there, inches from her face. Cursing, I swung my body forwards, forehead connecting with her face. Her strength failed her, and I wrenched my wrist free of her grip and swung around, backhanding her. Her head pivoted around, spittle and blood flying from her mouth at the blow. Grunting, I threw myself against the she-snake, pinning her against the wall, forearm pushing against her throat.

Gagging, she tried to draw a breath, but failed as her wind pipe was crushed by my arm. Lips curling up into a snarl, I pushed harder as she began to struggle, fists beating against my chest. When I felt her start to lose strength, I pushed even harder, knowing that it was soon to be over. When her muscles began to relax, I swung the arm that wasn't pinning her to the wall by the neck, remembering that I in fact still had my knife, and I wasn't about to take any chances.

Echidna gasped one last time, clutching at the knife that had been jammed in the side of her face. Then, the light faded her eyes and she slumped to the ground, dead.

Panting, feeling like I had no breath left, I sank to my knees, trying to shake away the warrior mentality. Looking around, I found that I was covered in the thick black liquid that had come out of the Ahriman when I stabbed its eye, along with the purple blood of Echidna. I was a mess.

Sometimes, it scares me how easily I can become a fighter who is willing to kill. Granted, these were hardly humans, but I had killed humans before. And that doesn't change the fact that I'd tried to slit Echidna's throat.

The Cerberus was dead, though there was no sign of any significant injury, which led me to think Seifer had used magic. I wasn't about to question the type of magic, but I did briefly wonder why the blond hadn't cast magic on the Ahriman. There was still the sound of fighting nearby, which meant that Seifer was still fighting against the two-headed dragon.

Wearily, I pulled myself to my feet and followed the room to witness Seifer use his limit 'Bloodfest' which killed the dragon.

Panting, Seifer walked up to the neck of one of the heads and pulled at something. I saw what it was once it came free. He had just rescued my gunblade from the neck of the beast. He moved towards me, and paused, taking in my appearance.

"You look like you were in the middle of a war." He finally said.

Shaking my head, I accepted the gunblade, and didn't even bother to clean the blade of either it or the knife as I sheathed them. Cleaning the blades wouldn't do much good while I'm already dirtier than they are.

"You really need to buy a new gunblade." Seifer pointed out.

"Know any good places that sell 'em?" I asked.

Seifer considered it, before shaking his head.

"No. Mine was given to me, so I don't know which shop it came from or if they still sell 'em."

I sighed. At this rate, I was going to have to go with a conventional sword, something that was rather boring now that I was used to a gunblade.

Groaning, I spat out more of the blood that had leaked from Echidna's tongue when I'd bitten down on it. Oh, right, possible diseases. Focusing on my Storage Materia, I withdrew a remedy, and took a sip, which I used to clean my mouth as if it were mouthwash, before spitting it out. The rest of the bottle I gulped down.

Hopefully that would prevent any illnesses from Echidna's blood. I'm aware that I might sound a tad paranoid there, but I have no experience with a monster fluids being in my mouth. It was back enough having that foot long tongue forced into my mouth to begin with.

I did have it in mind to wash my mouth out with acid, but that would be taking things a little too far.

"Cheer up." Seifer grinned. "We made it. Now we can finally leave this place."

"And you can instantly start hunting me for that bounty." I pointed out.

Seifer frowned, crossing his arms.

"No, I don't think I will. Screw the job. You helped me out here, I doubt I would have survived if you hadn't been here, and I don't plan on giving the one who kept my ass alive to the hangman."

I grinned weakly, nodding a thanks.

"Hell, I'll even tell my partner that you're off limits. With us both making a point of not hunting you, that'll also keep any other bounty hunters off your back, a mark that's refused by the best worries people."

"You serious?" I asked.

"Well, you might have to deal with the arrogant types, but I doubt they'll give ya too much trouble." He shrugged.

A compliment from Seifer. Or as close to one as he gets. That must mean something.

Damned if I know what though.

With the monsters defeated, we were free to look inside the room in the centre of this hall. It was a rather bland room, considering the amount of protection it had, but a warp pad has to take us somewhere, right?

And indeed, it took us somewhere. We appeared before an alter, which had energy swirling around in the centre of it. There was a transparent image of an earth coloured crystal amongst the swirls.

"Is that what the Earth Crystal looked like?" Seifer asked himself, getting closer to the alter.

A slight pressure in my head told me what the swirling substance was.

"I wouldn't get to close. That's Lifestream, or Mako or whatever you call it."

Seifer backed off, having no interest in getting Mako poisoning.

"Maybe the next age of crystals is coming sooner than anyone would think." I muttered. "That Crystal almost looks solid."

"Maybe, but it won't happen in our lifetimes, assuming Shinra doesn't destroy the world." Seifer waved the comment aside. "Still, it was worth fighting through all that, to see what the crystal looks like."

The crystal… It looked, strange, yet, powerful. And the crystal wasn't even finished yet, so I had to wonder what it would look like once it was complete.

"There's our way out." Seifer commented, pointing at a warp pad.

"Then, let's go." I nodded, following him to the pad.

Seifer stepped on the glowing blue pad and vanished in a flash of blue light. Sparing one last glance at the crystal, I stepped on the pad myself.

And found myself standing in an empty plane that I knew wasn't real, because everything was yellow.

"Yo." A familiar voice spoke up.

There, standing behind me was a young man, no, a teenager, dressed in a green and brown colours and looked hopelessly out of place. Well, anything would look out of place here, but he looked out of place with the world in general.

He had light brown hair and green eyes which twinkled with amusement.

I then recognised him as one of the four people that spoke to me in the vision? Of my school back home.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Ah, straight to the point… And here I thought you weren't going to be a bore."

I blinked at the tone of voice the guy was using. Then the words registered.

"Who're you calling a bore?"

"Ok, you aren't a bore, you're just tired. I get that."

Are we even having the same conversation?

"Listen, lizard dude, I'm here to talk to you for a reason. Divine entities demand this meeting, for reasons that are beyond your puny mortal brain to comprehend."

"I'm on a first name basis with a divine entity, so I already know that anything any divine entity wants from me is to annoy me." I countered.

"Well, now you know two divine entities." The guy grinned.

"You? Divine entity?"

"You don't have to sound so sceptical you know."

I raised an eyebrow ridge and he sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'm not a truly divine entity. Though I **am** an immortal entity. I was once a mere mortal like yourself, and I seriously miss it. Immortality sucks, y'know?"

"I wouldn't know, but I'll keep that in mind. Who are you?"

"Ah, how stupid of me. My name is Rick, and I was a Warrior of Light."

I blinked at the kid.

"You?"

"Hey, don't disbelieve **everything **I say. I was telling the truth there. I was one of the Warriors of Light. The thief of the team actually."

"The thief part I can understand. But aren't you a tad young to be a hero of legend?"

"I was actually the second oldest at sixteen at the time. Thing was, all four of us were just kids at the time, kids who got caught up in events which we had no understanding of. In the end, we fought because it was the only choice we had."

I nodded. His tone of voice told me that he wasn't lying.

"Well what do you want?" I asked.

"Believe it or not, it's to do you a favour. Your PS2, Jade was it? Well, she asked…"

"You know I'm not from Gaia?" I asked.

"Semi-divine entity here. It's a tad hard to miss details like that."

"And you don't have any thoughts about the fact that you're not, technically, real?"

"Don't care. Hell, I think it's pretty cool, people all over your world know my story, even if it's an abridged version, if what Jade said it true, but still… Getting back to the topic at hand, Jade asked all four of us Light Warriors to do this for you. And from what I saw, you need it a tad desperately, since your blade is a tad… crap… now."

"Oh thanks." I muttered, sarcastically.

"Hey, I sympathise." Rick claimed. "It was just bad luck. You improvised pretty well though. But getting off topic again. We're to present to you, a new, totally badass new gunblade."

"Ok… what's the catch?"

"Man, you're pessimistic." Rick shook his head. "No catch, unless you plan on making it even better, in which case, you have to visit all three other Soul Shrines and get the rest of the Light Warriors to get the weapon upgraded."

"To improve a weapon, I have to get it essentially 'blessed' by all four of a group of legendary heroes. This ain't a normal gunblade is it?"

"You catch on quick. Right, the reason, is that this is potentially - only potentially mind – the first ever **legendary** gunblade. Yes, you get gunblades that are described as legendary, but they were still man made. This gunblade, if you get it 'blessed' by all four of us Light Warriors, will literally be the first gunblade of awesome power made by the gods themselves. Though I think your PS2 did most of the hard work, so that's a bit of a letdown, but still..."

"What makes a 'legendary' blade any better than a manmade one?" I asked. "Extra shininess?"

Rick sighed, giving me a look that told me that he thought I was brain dead.

"Truly legendary weapons have an element of sorts to them. Except this element has no weakness, so it means that every single strike, even a simple slice, does more damage than any manmade blade. Exceptions are blades that are renowned for their element, like Excalibur being a 'holy' blade meant that it had elemental strike – holy.

"The Masamune, for example, is a legendary katana. Granted, it's been corrupted, but that was why the wounds wouldn't heal, even though the Ancient put all her effort into it. If it hadn't been corrupted, they would have healed easily, unless the injured party is evil."

That explained the scar on my face and leg.

"Ok. So this could be the first gunblade to ever become legendary?"

"Yep. Also, and this might make you slightly happier, they aren't liable to break when an obese monster treads on them, even if they're only in the potential stage. Look, do you want the weapon or not?"

I nodded, and Rick held out his hand.

"Give me what remains of Talon then."

I pulled out the gunblade that I'd had since Midgar and handed it over to the thief of legend, who frowned at the blood covering it.

"Yeash, you look like you were in a war."

That would be two people that pointed that out.

Rick held the gunblade, concentrating. The blade vanished in a flash of bright light, and in his hands was a completely different gunblade.

"It looks…" I began, staring at the blade in awe. "It looks like the bastard love child of the Lionheart and Caladbolg." I finished.

Rick burst out laughing at my description, handing the new gunblade to me.

"That's actually not a bad combo. The Lionheart is the most powerful man-made gunblade to date, and the Caladbolg was a sword that legends claim could slice the tops off of hills." He pointed out.

I wasn't joking, the new gunblade did look like the bastard love child of Squall And Tidus' best weapons. The main difference was that it was an emerald green rather than the blue of both aforementioned blades. And engraved on the side was… a recreation of the tattoo I got myself if Cosmo Canyon. Hold up, my engraving before was of a more anthromorphic variety... Sort of.

I was glad I didn't protest this verbally, because I noticed that on the end of the handle was a keychain with the image that had been engraved on my previous blade at the end of it. At least the gods decided to personalize my new blade for me.

"That was us Light Warriors." Rick spoke up. "The problem with most weapons is that they have no personality, so we customised it with the two images that go with you. The tribal lizard you recently had tattooed to your arm and that depiction of a Laixiu that was engraved on your previous blade."

I nodded, even though he was just confirming my thoughts.

"So what is this thing called?" I asked, giving it a few test swings.

The balance was perfect. I could easily slip into using this gunblade in the place of Talon, some slight adjustment, naturally, since both blades were a different shape. But other than that, this blade was actually pretty good.

Yet, even though it felt good, it didn't feel… complete. I suppose that I'll need to gain the blessings of the Light Warriors if I want the blade to actually feel complete.

"Well, since you've proven yourself to have been born with the heart of a dragon…"

"I wasn't born with the heart of a dragon, I got one when I was fused with my pet water dragon." I pointed out.

"No… I don't mean in the physical sense." Rick countered, sounding completely serious. "You have a sense of right and wrong and the bravery to back it up. You even stood up to Jade when she was telling you that you should have let a man suffer needlessly just to preserve your own life, and she is pretty much the highest being on Gaia, what with being the creator and all. The thieves back in Midgar tried to mug you, and you let them live, because they were in no position to harm you. That is what I meant by the heart of a dragon."

"So that two headed dragon outside was an exception?"

Rick sighed.

"Corrupted dragons are fairly common these days. When the term was first used, a corrupted dragon was so rare, they'd only be seen once every century."

"I'm not that brave."

"You underestimate yourself. You do deserve to be called such, and it's not just me that says that. All of the Light Warriors agree.

I shook my head, and the thief sighed.

"At any rate, the gunblade is called DragonHeart. I'm aware that it's not very original, and pretty much steals its name from one half of the two that made the bastard love child of a blade, but originality was hardly an issue, a worthy name was."

I simply nodded, accepting the name and the blade. Giving it another look, a sheathed it, only for it to completely vanish.

"What?"

Rick was grinning again.

"That's my blessing by the way. The blade is stored in, I don't know, a pocket dimension or something. When you need it, it'll appear in your hand."

"And I'm to just trust this?"

"You realize that that is how Sephiroth manages to walk around without slicing the entire street when he turns around."

"How do I get it out then?"

"Sort of shape your hand as if you're holding the handle, and it'll appear. I always found it easier to move my hand as if I were tugging it into existence."

I did as he said and gave a tug to my imaginary gunblade, for it to suddenly come into existence. I blinked, and let go of the blade letting it fall to the ground. It didn't reach, before it vanished again.

"It has the bonus of meaning you'll never truly be disarmed." Rick added. "Someone knocks your blade out of your hand and it'll vanish, so just do the motions and it'll return to you. I would recommend throwing the thing at the enemy and then having it return to your hand instantly, but it being a **gun**blade renders that idea rather pointless."

"Cloud mentioned that Sephiroth had the Masamune turned against him. Or it was attempted anyway."

"Corrupted blades have a mind of their own. It stayed in existence and mocked the one who tried to use it against its 'rightful' owner. You won't have that issue."

That was nice to know.

"So your blessing was this 'pocket dimension' sheath… thingy. What are the other's blessings?"

Rick shrugged.

"Don't honestly know. I think Matt planned something regarding the actual ammo that your blade shoots, but I don't honestly know."

"Matt?" I asked, catching the name.

"Matteus. He was the youngest of the team, he'd like you."

I nodded, sensing that that was all that Rick planned to say on that subject.

"I'll send you back to the outside world now." Rick said, moving away from me. "I'll transport you to Wutai, seeing as that's where your friends are going. Hopefully you'll catch up with them. I cleaned you up, since monster blood is a pain to wash out. No need for thanks."

"Thanks anyway." I nodded.

Rick gave a wide grin, and then the world went blurry.

* * *

I found myself sitting at a beach, staring out to sea. Blinking, I got to my feet.

Was all that a dream? I checked over myself and found that my gunblade, heck, the entire sheath was missing. Frowning, I curled up my hand and pulled, and sure enough, the DragonHeart came into existence. Nope, no dream.

I would complain that this gives me a bit of an unfair advantage on the world, but then I remember that Sephiroth has a corrupted legendary weapon which inflicts unhealable wounds.

No, I'm going to need every advantage I can get, and really, a mystical sheath that happens to be a pocket dimension or something… Hold on, this is essentially sheathing it in my Storage Materia, only without the delay in bringing it out.

That damned thief's blessing was a knockoff; I demand a refund, with interest.

Well, ok, the fact that there is no delay and I don't need to actually be focusing on my Storage Materia is actually useful. Still, couldn't he have added something like a Ribbon ability to it?

No, I suppose that would be asking for too much.

Dismissing my blade, I felt Montblanc re-enter my mind, returning from his self imposed banishment to his Materia.

_Are you going to try and give me another migraine?_

'_Forgive me, kupo. But the Soul Shrines are forbidden places that no one is permitted to enter.'_

_And yet, one of the Warriors of light was waiting for me there to present me with a new weapon._

'_I know, kupo. I wanted to stop, but just because the gods and goddesses of Gaia may will something, doesn't mean that the planet itself will agree, kupo. I have a connection to the planet, and even if Minerva herself gave you permission, the planet would still make me try to stop you, kupo.'_

_Hmm, so the planet and the divine beings of the planet don't always agree?_

'_No, kupo. The planet may respect the divine beings and vice versa, but there are certain issues that are disagreed upon, kupo. The Soul Shrines are one of them, kupo.'_

_That makes things awkward if I find another shrine. I need to go through them to get the blessings of the Light Warriors, but…_

'_Unequip my Materia if you have to enter one again, kupo. That way I won't be able to try and stop you.'_

I suppose I'm going to have to. The ability to summon would have been handy against Echidna. Or the masses of little goblin bastards.

I hate not being able to use a useful asset.

Flicking out my PHS, I pushed the buttons to activate the GPS program and stared. Rick had said he'd drop me off at Wutai, but he went and dropped me at the complete opposite end from where I needed to go.

Let's see, if I go through this forest here, then by night, I'll be at the other side, where I can set up camp, hidden amongst the trees. Then in the morning, I can walk to some town that I can't pronounce the name of, and stock up on some supplies, before continuing to the capital.

That was a plan. And I planned on following my plan through to the letter.

Despite it being a good plan, it was also a boring plan. It was also a plan that would have been made useless by the buggy, had I had it here, with me. Damnit, I miss my buggy already. Running over monsters and doing barrel rolls was fun.

I wonder why the Storage Materia has a size restriction. I wanted to just store the buggy in my Storage Materia and keep it with me at all times. It would have been, I don't know… useful!

Then again, I suppose it's for the better. Just imagine all the vehicle thefts, just walk up to a car, then 'yoink, it's in my Storage Materia, so now I can just go somewhere else and then bring it out so I can actually break into it'.

Ouch… ok, I'm glad that vehicles can't fit.

By night, I was tired and annoyed that I hadn't gotten as far as I'd hoped, and setting up my tent. I paused when I heard the snap of a twig, and brought the DragonHeart into the world, spinning around with it held in a defensive stance. Only to relax when I saw that it was only Jade, who was looking amused.

"I see you're already adapting to your new weapon." She grinned, looking around my campsite. "No fire?"

"Haven't had a chance to light one." I answered, dismissing the blade. "And yes, already adapting. Thank you."

"Would you believe me when I said that it was a coincidence that Talon was damaged when it was?" Jade asked, crouching down and creating a ring of rocks.

"I'd say no, but I doubt you'd want me to get into a situation like that when I'm not at my best." I shook my head. "What are you doing?"

"Helping." Jade waved her hand, before pointing at the inside of the ring of rocks and then there was a log fire burning where she'd pointed.

It was kind of weird watching the log fire come into existence, as it did so pixel by pixel, like in the movie Tron.

"Glad you have at least some faith in me." Jade smiled, pointing next to the fire and creating a pot alone with cooking utensils.

"Now what are you doing?"

"My treat." She answered. "Something went wrong in the Earthgift Shrine, and I wasn't able to help you out, so I'm giving you a treat. Consider it a peace offering."

"You mean the vision thing after I was pulled six feet under?"

"Exactly that. That wasn't anything that I, or any other of Gaia's various divine beings put into play, and I was held up at the time, so I couldn't help you through it."

"You were held up?" I asked, eyebrow ridge raised. "What could hold up the creator of the world?"

"Try a meeting with a council of game consoles, among who are some of the biggest jerks you're ever likely to meet. Some of them feel that I interfere too much as it is, so they refused to let me postpone the meeting."

"There's a council of you people?"

"Oh yes. We have our own society, and that means leaders and jerks and people I can't stand."

Jade readied the cooking stuff and brought into existence a large hunk of meat and various vegetables. I was curious as to why Jade didn't just bring a full roast dinner inter existence, but figured that question took a backseat for now.

"And this meeting was about you interfering too much?"

"No, that was just an issue brought up. Technically, I shouldn't be telling you this, but there have been glitches and events that are happening outside of my control. The odd glitch is normal, nothing is perfect, and where we find them, we fix them, hopefully before the Player is affected by them."

"But…" I prompted.

"But it seems this world has been suffering far more glitches than normal. That was one of the reasons I had Maria with me when we met in Costa Del Sol, she was helping me try to fix it."

"I take it that it didn't turn out so well?" I asked.

"We fixed most of them, only for a whole new batch to appear the next day. It's getting a little frustrating." Jade admitted. "I would say it's because we're doing a kind of experiment with this world, but there haven't been any issues outside of the Northern Continents. If it was happening in Ivalice as well, then we'd know that what we're trying wouldn't work, and then figure out why so an experiment can be done at a later date."

"I'm an experiment?"

"Not you, Gaia in general. That I can't explain, since it doesn't look like it'll actually affect you, so no worries. It's these glitches that worry me."

"I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, other than the visions when six feet under, and the Mako visions."

"The Mako visions aren't a glitch, that's just you as in **you **personally have a sort of allergy to unprocessed Mako. And no matter what I do, Mako will always be a weak point in the world, which is why you saw into the experiences of other worlds."

Interesting.

"Point is, that was the first glitch that actually affected you. That is cause for worry, since we can't explain what exactly happened."

"For now, I'm just to treat it as a quirk of the world, I suppose."

"It's all you can do." Jade smiled apologetically.

"Wait, there was something, not sure if it's a glitch though." I spoke up after several seconds of thought.

Jade looked up at me, looking serious.

"I've been losing my memories of my life before all of this, and been getting memories of what my life was like here in Gaia."

Jade blinked in shock, and she abandoned what she was doing and came to stand in front me, looking me in the eyes.

"This is serious, Jethro. Why didn't you call me?" She asked.

"At the time, it was at the back of my mind, I always had something happening that was happening at the there and then, and it dropped from my mind. How serious?"

"There have been cases where Players have had their memories completely rewritten. Permanently. It's rare, but it is serious enough that we have to be very careful. I made a point of not doing anything to your mind when I brought you here because I was unwilling to risk it."

"Ah." I sighed.

"When did this start happening?"

"I noticed it when we were travelling to the Coral Mountains." I admitted. "But I'd already completely forgotten what my mother looks like or what she was even called."

Jade shut her eyes, cursing under her breath.

"I need to check your mind. I need your permission though, it is an invasive scan."

I hesitated, before slowly nodding. Jade took my head in her hands and shut her eyes. From this close, I could see that it looked like she had Asian blood in her. She didn't have the look of a full-blooded Asian, more like a half and half. For a moment it looked like she was sleeping, then I felt my thoughts being shuffled around. Memories were dragged up to the surface, private thoughts were read. Finally, her eyes snapped open and she moved away from me, cursing.

"I can't tell whether it's a result of that mag rod in your face from Cel or a glitch or worse!" She snarled.

"Worse?" I asked.

"Act of sabotage. Another console, in theory, could have done this to you, but considering how close of an eye I've kept on you, I really doubt that. I've managed to stop the degradation, and I've made a backup of your memories, just in case. I also found the ones you've forgotten. I'll keep those in backup as well, in case it disrupts the effort I made to stop the memory loss."

I sighed, shaking my head.

"Why would another console do this, hypothetically?"

"Petty rivalry or something along those lines. Add in that I'm not very popular, and voila."

I shrugged.

"So long as I don't lose any more memories, I'm ok, right?"

"You shouldn't lose any more memories. If you think you are though, do not hesitate to call me on the PHS."

I grunted an agreement, and Jade went back to working on the food that she'd created, putting some in the large pot.

"Besides which, for the moment, these new memories seem to be more helpful than anything." I muttered. "I know things that I otherwise wouldn't have."

"Don't depend on them. If I can find a way to completely reverse the memory degradation, I'll do so within a heartbeat."

"I understand."

Jade remained quiet, and I sat, watching as she cooked whatever she'd put in the pot.

"Why are you cooking? Can't you just create a fully cooked meal?" I asked, feeling nothing more important come to mind.

"Strange as it may sound, I enjoy cooking." Jade said.

"Really? You don't look or act the part." I commented.

Jade shot me a look which only served to prove my point.

"And Gordon Ramsay does? With all his swearing, you'd thing he hated his job." The console snapped. "You should be thankful that I even talk to you in person." Jade shrugged, returning to her cooking.

"And why's that?"

"Because then I can actually cook you a meal." She smiled. "If I worked like Maria, this would all be a dream of sorts."

"Maria chooses to talk to Maggie in her dreams instead of in person?"

"Not at first, but yes, she started to do that instead. I can't stand the idea, myself. I'd rather actually have whoever I'm talking to in a position where they can do what they want, including walk away if they truly felt the need."

"That's nice to know."

"I'm also easier to vent at." Jade smirked.

"Eh? Why's that?"

"Maria is actually rather sensitive. You remember when you fell from the bridge at Mako Reactor 5?"

"How could I forget?" I mumbled.

"Well, when you appeared in Maggie's cell, it was actually just after they'd had an argument. The events had just seemed to come crashing down around Maggie and she needed to vent, and Maria was the target."

"And because Maria is sensitive, she was feeling depressed afterwards." I guessed.

"Indeed. It's a tad difficult to vent at someone who is in tears, whereas, if you vent at me, I'd either tune you out or shout back, giving further motivation to vent all the anger and angst. Incidentally, that was why we had that gambling going on. We weren't serious, but I needed to cheer her up somehow, and joking about gambling on you seemed like a good idea at the time."

I nodded, accepting the answer. It actually made a bit of sense, if I needed to cheer someone up, joke about something.

"So, do you choose your appearance?" I asked, changing the topic.

"For the most part. Why?"

"Asian?"

Jade sighed, giving me an odd look.

"You only just noticed?"

"I don't make a point of staring into people's eyes, and I barely see you face to face to begin with."

"That's true, I suppose." Jade consented. "No; I didn't choose that. It's a console quirk; each platform has a shared quirk. In the case of Playstations, there's a sense that we're half Asian, whether it's the eye shape or skin colour. With all the old Sega consoles, they always, ALWAYS have blue hair. And always the exact same shade of blue. X-Boxes all wear tacky suits, and have slicked back hair that makes them look like they're trying too hard. And Nintendo consoles tend to be just plain eccentric, even by our standards. We **can** change the quirk, but it takes a lot of effort, so most of us don't bother."

"And you chose the appearance of a kid because?"

"I don't know. It just felt, right, I suppose. It's like, back home, why do you chose to have short hair, why not dye it blond and wear it in a pony tail?"

"You were recently in my brain, you tell me."

"Because it just feels right to you to have short brown hair. Same with me and this appearance. Can't say what some other consoles are thinking. There's one Playstation whose appearance reminds me of an owl. He's a bastard though, so I will gladly mock him."

"Huh, inter-console politics. Remind me to steer clear." I muttered, getting a laugh from Jade as she served the contents of the pot on the fire into a bowl, before handing it to me.

At a glance, it looked like a stew of some kind. But Jade looked the type to put poison in the food she cooks, so I looked at it suspiciously. Jade noticed this as she was serving herself and gave a huff of annoyance.

"For crying out loud… It's a simple beef stew, nothing poisonous. Keep that up, and I'll consider never giving you a treat like this again."

Wincing, I took a roll of bread and dipped it into the hot stew, before taking a bite. Hey, this is pretty good.

The tasting test passed, I dug right in. This was really good.

"Don't suppose I can convince you to join AVALANCHE as the team chef?"

"Don't suppose I can convince you to refuse seconds." She countered, and I shut up.

Eventually, I finished the meal, along with seconds and thirds. Shortly after, I fell asleep.

Jade looked over the camp site, shaking her head, a small grin tugging at her lips as she cleaned up and vanished without a trace.

The next morning, the only evidence that she'd ever been here was the remains of the logs used to fuel the fire.

* * *

AN:::

And that's it for this Season. Next season will begin the 2nd of May. Hope you all enjoyed, ect ect. I might put up some side stories that are canonical with the rest of the fic in the meantime, depending on how I feel (and whether or not I recover from this flu before I start writting the next chapters.

I had something else to say, but I can't think of it at the moment, so it probably wasn't important, so for now, it is farewell.


	29. The Best Laid Plans

Apologies for the delay. For the last month and a half, I have had no internet connection. In fact, if it weren't for my mobile, I would have had absolutely no means of communicating with the outside world. And then, while I DID get the internet back before last week… this chapter's file was corrupted or something… Or else aliens randomly decided to translate about half of the work into their own language. I was forced to spend this week re-writing it, and I still don't feel it could compare to the lost stuff… ah well… Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 28: The Best Laid Plans

The problem with plans is that even the best laid plan is doomed to fail. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and the enemy for my plan was the land itself.

Oh, and the big ass-monsters. Never forget the big-ass monsters.

So, while I'd planned out a good route to the Wutain capital, the land itself had set out to ruin that plan.

The problem with my little GPS program on my PHS, is that it does a very bad job of pointing out hills and how damned steep they were. It also fails to mention anything about monsters, but I can't blame it for that. And yet, that doesn't stop me from being pissed off at the whole situation.

These were the thoughts running through my head as I sat at the table in a small town that I was passing through. In my hands was a large glass of Pepsi, something I hadn't had a good drink of in so long, I had forgotten what it tasted like. Hard to believe that once upon a time I was addicted to the stuff… or maybe it was just the caffeine in the stuff.

Yeah, once upon a time. Feels like a lifetime ago now.

Huh, maybe it **was** a lifetime ago.

Still, no use wallowing in despair. My latest plan was to finish my drink and then continue on this hike. Maybe, just maybe, that plan won't fail.

Gulping down the last of the caffeinated drink, I stood up, dropping some change on the tabletop, enough to pay for the drink and then some. Time to figure out which way was north and start marching.

Have I ever told you how much I love the fact that I no longer have to wear shoes? It's great. Despite all the walking I've done, I haven't got a single blister, because I have no shoes to GIVE me blisters. I hate blisters.

Off topic I know, but…

I pause as I take in the sight of the motorcycle parked outside the tavern I'd just exited. And it was thus that my inner child came out and screamed:

"Oh my god, freaking awesome, I want, I want, I want!"

Thankfully, the street was empty. No-one around to see me acting like a hyper little kid.

Still though, the bike in front of me was awesome. It made the bikes that Cloud and I rode out of the Shinra Tower look like mopeds. I'm not joking. This thing is a beast, the mother of all motorbikes. And I want one. I bet Cloud would be thinking the same thing.

"Fuck off Lizard-brat." A familiar voice muttered behind me. "No touching my bike."

I turned and stared at the man who'd spoken. He was dressed in torn jeans, and a worn looking leather jacket, had messy brown hair. He had tattoos running all down his arms and looked like a freaking gangster… and felt really, really familiar.

"Do I know you?" I asked, uncertainly.

The gangster stared at me, frown marring his features. It was clear to me that he recognised me, but damned if I could recognise him.

"You've made my professional life a misery since you entered it, and you can't even remember me?"

_Erm…_

"Nope, doesn't ring a bell."

The gangster's eye twitched and he took a step towards me, arms outstretched in a gesture that implied he wanted to wrap his hands around my throat.

"Ever since we met in Sector 7, your existence has mocked me at every turn, and you don't even remember me?" He snarled.

_I don't recall meeting a gangster in Sector 7…_

'_Nor do I…' _Spike mumbled.

"Sorry, I still have no idea what you're talking about." I shrugged.

"And to think I felt sorry for you when that she-devil attacked you." The gangster mumbled.

I stroked my chin in thought, trying to recall the moment he was talking about.

"…I have no idea what you're talking about." I finally told him. "Are you sure that you aren't mistaking me for someone else?"

"Are there any other lizards walking around?"

"Ok, good point… maybe you're mistaking me for some kid dressed in a lizard costume?"

"No, it was you! The irritating little bastard with the gunblade!"

"Now I'm certain you're mistaking me for someone else, while I use a gunblade, I'm not an irritating little bastard."

The gangster dropped his arms and stared at me, eye twitching. Finally, he shook his head and turned around, walking into the tavern, pretending I didn't exist.

Good, if he's going to go about mistaking me for kids dressed in costumes, I'm not sure I want to have him talking to me.

Still, he is the owner to the most freaking awesome motorbike in existence. I wonder how he got it, and whether he'd tell me how to get one of my own. Oh, wait, I already own a **tank**… I still want that bike.

And it was then that I realized that my plan to hit the road immediate after finishing my drink, simple as it had been; had been destroyed. Yeah, even the best laid plans. Still, it wasn't that bad, I did meet a very disturbed gangster.

"Hey, kid."

I turned to look at the new voice, and found myself face to balaclava with some guy dressed all in black, with a fierce looking dog at his heels. Fierce as the dog may look; I doubt it'd be a match for Murphy… Wow, how long has it been since I last thought about that miserable brute of a dog that had made it its life mission to make my life a misery?

"You want something?" I asked the balaclava clad man.

"You heading up to the capital?"

"And if I am?"

"Hmm… Shinra troops and monsters are blocking the way. Normally I'd charge, but since we'd be heading in the same direction…"

"You want to team up?"

"In this instance, it'd be mutually beneficial."

"And what makes you think I wouldn't be dead-weight?"

Now that I'd looked at the man, I noticed that he was literally covered in weapons: kunai and shuriken mostly, but there were a couple of katana sheathed to his back. He was clearly an experienced warrior, from the way he held himself.

"Three reasons. One: You're wearing an anklet with Materia equipped to it. Clever idea, hiding your Materia like that."

I glanced at my right ankle. Even though I knew it was there, I couldn't see any evidence of the anklet that the man was talking about.

"How did you…?"

"If you know what to look for, you can see the slight bulges where the Materia is equipped."

Now that he mentioned it, yes, there were slight bulges, practically invisible.

"And the other two reasons?" I asked.

"Two: You've pissed off the President of Shinra enough to place a bounty on you, as well as made an enemy out of two of the Turks. That's either very brave, or very stupid. And seeing as you're still alive…"

"And reason three?"

"Three: You have the respect of Seifer Almasy, and that is practically impossible. The fact that you managed it says a lot."

News travels fast it seems.

"Right, so you want us to work together until we get to the capital? What's the catch?"

"We need to go through a Shinra camp. The captain has a bounty on his head I intend to collect. You help me, and that will be your payment for my help getting to the capital."

That sounds rather reasonable. And who am I to not jump at the opportunity to hurt the Shinra when given the chance?

The balaclava clad man must have taken my silence for acceptance. He turned and began to walk away, expecting me to follow, uttering two words.

"Come, Interceptor."

The dog turned to follow its owner, after giving me a rather odd look.

Since when did dogs give me odd looks? Am I really so out of place that even animals give me odd looks?

Shaking my head, I followed the ninja.

"Nice dog." I said.

"Not really." He countered. "He's a vicious son of a bitch."

At the ninja's remark, the dog snorted, as if in amusement. I shook my head, small grin tugging at my lips.

"And you?"

"People say I'd slit my own mother's throat for a nickel." The man shrugged.

"And would you?"

The man shrugged again.

"You're not one for conversation, are you?"

"No."

This… was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Before we reached the camp, I did manage to get the ninja to talk a bit more. Admittedly, all I could get him to talk about was this job that I was to help him with.

I managed to get him to talk about the background of the mission.

Apparently, this Shinra camp was laying siege to an old Wutai fortress that was the last refuge of the Wutain Samurai. The only reason that it had never attracted the attention of the Shinra before now, was because the Samurai had never, officially at least, been considered a part of the Wutain military during the war. They had stuck to acting as Lord Godo's personal guard and acting as a police force of sorts. What little they had actually fought during the war had usually been purely defensive in nature.

Maybe Godo had realized that the war was not one that he was going to win and had set about minimizing the amount of damage that would come at their defeat?

Well, not quite, the fort is actually privately owned, and has an open door policy for the Samurai of Wutai, so while Samurai were still trained, there was still a base of sorts for them to live in.

However, this one Shinra captain had not taken being publically beaten in a dual against one of the Samurai lightly, and was now determined to kill every last Samurai in Wutai, starting with this fort which held the single largest gathering of them. So now he had laid siege to the fort, and was waiting for them to either starve to death, or come out like lambs to the slaughter.

Shadow had been hired to kill the captain, and provide a distraction for the Samurai, so that on leaving the fort, they wouldn't be instantly cut down by machine-gun fire.

If it weren't for the distraction part, I wouldn't be needed.

My companion, being a ninja, was specialised in the art off assassination, he knew more ways to kill the captain than I would ever want to know, and he'd do it without anyone ever knowing that he was there. But in full frontal confrontation, he could hold his own in one-on-one fairly well, but against an entire camp, a little help would go a long way, and really, what better way to distract the camp, then by having two publicly known anti-Shinra elements making an assault on the guys assaulting the fort?

I like this plan.

* * *

We arrived at the camp before sun-down. There are probably all sorts of ways to describe the camp, each making the aforementioned camp sound interesting.

Regrettably, words fail me at this point, and the only way I can really describe the camp is… well, it's a camp. Lots of tents, lots of Shinra troopers walking around aimlessly and lots of shouting coming from the captain, who, from the sounds of things, was lecturing his men on… something or other, I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. Oh, and a big fortress at one end of the camp, can't forget that.

There were also machines buzzing around, likely automated weapon systems or some such, because the Shinra always seems to enjoy killing without the risk of being killed first. I would make a comment about their cowardice, but in all honesty, the Shinra's standard military is so useless, I really can't fault them for trying to lower the death ratio. I don't like it, I really can't see a fortress full of noble and honourable samurai liking it, and judging from the way Interceptor was growling, the dog didn't like it either.

I really can't tell one way or the other whether the ninja liked it or not, because he gave no physical reaction and the balaclava prevented me from seeing his facial expressions.

"Plan?" I asked, scratching my snout in thought.

"You enter from the north, making a lot of noise. I'll enter from the south slitting everyone's throats while they're looking towards you, exposing their backs to me. Interceptor will enter from the east and do whatever pleases him."

"You want me to singlehandedly take on the entire camp while you safely stab them all in the back?"

"Only until the samurai leave the fort, then we'll have an army of samurai evening things out."

"You'll still be in the shadows even while the cavalry arrives, won't you?"

The ninja gave no verbal answer. He just started to move towards the south side of the camp. Interceptor gave me a look of mild amusement.

"Is he always like this?"

The dog seemed to consider my question before giving a nod.

That is one intelligent mutt.

"So what will you be doing in the camp?"

The dog gave me a grin that implied that in all honesty, I really didn't want to know. Strangely, I found myself agreeing; I didn't want to know.

Shaking my head, I moved northwards, so that I could go make some noise and be as provocative as possible so that my temporary companion can stab people in the back. Now that I think about it, I have the easy job.

Entering the camp, I was surprised at how lax the security was. I had expected the Shinra goons to see me and start doing what Shinra does best long before I actually entered the premises. As it was, I'd entered the camp with absolutely no trouble at all.

"Why are we attacking this place again?" I heard somebody ask.

"Because the Captain is a bastard." Somebody replied.

"What exactly does he have against the samurai?"

"Do you really think that the Captain needs to have a reason? It's the Captain."

"Good point. But is SOLDIER really necessary?"

SOLDIER was here? That kind of threw a wrench in the works. SOLDIER are that much harder to defeat than the standard Shinra military, though not unbeatable. Admittedly, my experience with SOLDIER is limited to fighting Kain and Cecil, both of whom are now allegedly working for the Midgar branch of AVALANCHE.

Problem, that fight it was us outnumbering them, this time the opposite is true. This… might be a little harder than anticipated.

"Probably not." The voice spoke up. "Especially not when we add all the technological shit that the Captain obsesses with."

"It does seem overkill." The first voice mumbled.

"Not in the Captain's eyes. He has no concept of overkill…"

"And he's proud to admit that he has no mercy."

"Shh… here he comes."

I heard footsteps approaching the source of the two voices, and a third voice, one that just grated on my nerves, spoke up.

"What are you doing?"

"S-sir! Just patrolling the camp, Sir!"

"Hmph… well get on with it then, useless ingrates."

"Y-yes, Sir!"

I heard more footsteps, and then all was quiet.

'_Well, that was interesting.' _Spike mused. _'The Captain sounds like the Joker.'_

Now that the lizard within had mentioned it, the Captain did sound vaguely like Mark Hamill's Joker. All that was missing was the laugh.

_Wait… it can't be… Jade can't be that cruel…_

'_What?'_

_Just a thought for who that voice could be..._

"You, what are you doing here?"

Busted. Looks like I had stayed in one spot for too long. Oh well, the plan **was** that I make a nuisance of myself.

Standing up from where I had crouched in order to listen to the voices, I held my arms up and looked at the man who had found me. Just a regular Shinra grunt. There would be little difficulty in taking him out.

I swung my arm down, pulling my gunblade into existence. The grunt had clearly not expected the blade to appear from thin air as it had, and was felled without any struggle.

Only problem with killing someone like that, at least in a situation where you want to cause a ruckus, is that blades don't made much noise, and the bloke I just killed didn't exactly make a loud death scream. It's an easily solved problem, however. Just point the gunblade in the air and pull the trigger, repeatedly.

Once I had done so, there was a moment of silence, before the camp burst into action. Every tent had at least a small number of Shinra troops exiting them, all armed with various weapons. The regular military generally carried rifles, the guys dressed in similar clothing to Cloud, they generally carried broad swords.

There were exceptions to both rules, but that was hardly the point. The point was, there were a lot of men, carrying various weapons, all coming for me.

Maybe I shouldn't have pulled the trigger so quickly.

One of the standard military types aimed his rifle at me and fired a short burst of gunfire.

Swearing, I dived to the side, avoiding the hail of gunfire, focusing on my Materia, before exhaling a breath of fiery death upon the idiot stupid enough to take a shot at me. The grunt screamed as he was burnt to death, but I didn't dwell on the scene, I was too busy, getting back to my feet and avoiding a slash from one of the SOLDIERs.

The SOLDIER managed to parry my retaliatory slash, but clearly hadn't experienced the awesomeness of a gunblade before, as while he held the blade away from him, the end was still pointed at his head. I quickly pulled the trigger, already turning to face the next person foolish enough to try and start a fight with me, missing the scene of violence that was the result of my trigger pulling.

Ducking under another SOLDIER's attempt at slice me in two, I thrust my weapon into the chest of a grunt, pivoting around the next SOLDIER to try and attack me, introducing a healthy dose of Matra Magic to him in the process.

A small gathering of regular infantry was wiped out when I cast Beta. A SOLDIER was quickly felled when I slammed my elbow into his neck, generating a loud crack.

Hissing angrily as a bullet grazed me, I cast another Beta, wiping out another gathering. A SOLDIER tried to attack me, but I grabbed a still unharmed infantryman and pulled him in front of me, using him as a shield. While the SOLDIER was still registering the fact that he had just killed one of his team-mates, I aimed my weapon at him and pulled the trigger.

It never occurred to me that I was actually killing living, breathing people, rather than monsters. Maybe it was just the fact that I don't actually know any of these people, and that this was all in self-defence. Would it be harder for me if I knew whether this man I had just gored had a pregnant wife back home, or whether this SOLDIER I had just killed was a single parent of two?

Panting, I leapt back to put some space between myself and the enemy. It wasn't to be, however, as on leaping back, I had simply moved from one group of enemies to another.

Maybe, just maybe I had overestimated myself here. I was slowly tiring, and when it came down to it, I hadn't managed to take out that many of the Shinra forces.

A growl alerted me to the ninja's dog, seconds before it leapt out and killed a man with its teeth. Suddenly, I was glad that I wasn't on the bad side of that dog.

As if the dog's arrival had granted me some strength, I continued the fight with renewed vigour, weaving through the blades of the SOLDIERs, keeping close enough that the infantry with the rifles dare not take a shot for fear of friendly fire. I was the incarnation of death, not one of the Shinra military was able to strike a blow any more lethal than a slight graze. I didn't just limit myself to the blade; more than a few of the Shinra forces were killed by my Flame Breath, Beta, or Matra Magic.

It wasn't long before the enemy realized that a tactical retreat was in order. I just wish they hadn't used a flash-bang in order to make that retreat, as it left me trying to rub the dark spots out of my eyes.

Still, in the long run, I didn't kill that many.

The ninja stepped out of the shadows, wiping blood from his katana, inspecting the bodies.

"Did you see the Captain?" He asked.

"Heard him before this all started." I panted. "Never got a look at him though."

The ninja nodded slowly, before looking up sharply. I followed his gaze and found myself staring at… a clown in military uniform?

The clown was clearly not impressed.

"How dare you strike down my men?" He screeched, and I recognised the voice instantly.

"That's the Captain?" I muttered, shocked.

"Captain Kefka of the Shinra." The ninja nodded. "Not a high ranking officer, but high enough that he does what he likes and gets away with it."

I groaned at the name. Kefka? Why Kefka of all people. He was the single most annoying of all the villains of the Final Fantasy series. I doubt I could keep myself from getting a headache when the source of that annoyance is an actual person in front of me.

"Die clown!" I roared, leaping forwards, DragonHeart swinging around in a move to kill him as quickly as possible.

Kefka was clearly more agile than I anticipated. He managed to dodge the blow and skipped back, making a face that under other circumstances, would have been fairly comical.

"Ooh… I am **not** a clown!" He shouted at me.

"Don't care, just die!" I hissed, making another attempt to kill him.

"I can tell I'm unwanted." Kefka said, more to himself than anybody else. "Later folks!"

And with that he moved to run away.

"Wait!"

"Wait he says… do I **look **like a waiter?" He laughed.

"Yes…"

Ok, it had been at a kid's birthday party, but the party had still had a clown as the waiter.

Kefka looked shocked for a moment, clearly not expecting me to reply so. When he noticed me approaching, he resumed running. Cursing, I took several shots at him, but the only effect was to make him shout unflattering things as he sort of hopped along.

---

While I was clown hunting, (a sport that I appear to be quite bad at) the fortress gate opened, releasing a swarm of samurai warriors. My fight with the Shinra army had been distraction enough to release the proverbial hounds. And like hounds the Samurai were. They charged in, slaughtering anything that stood in their way.

One of the samurai took a place beside the ninja, stroking his moustache.

"It isn't like you to make such noise." He nodded.

The ninja shrugged.

"Wasn't me."

"Oh, you recruited help this time?"

"Mutually beneficial deal. He helps me with this; I help him get to the capital without getting lost on the way… which he would."

"What has he done? It is most unlike you to help anybody without being given a large sum of gil."

"Besides being respected by Seifer Almasy of all people?"

"You never put much stock in other people's opinions."

"You know me a little too well." The ninja shrugged. "Jethro 'Spike' Logan, one of the main faces of this latest incarnation of AVALANCHE, has a habit of pissing off powerful people and surviving. Non-human."

"AVALANCHE?"

"I know what you're thinking, but this latest group isn't like the original AVALANCHE."

"I heard they dropped one of Midgar's plates…"

"**Shinra** said that they dropped the Sector Seven plate. Remember that propaganda does just as much damage as a knife in the dark."

The samurai nodded, hesitantly, frowning.

"If it makes you feel better, Godo's daughter is a member."

The Samurai looked up sharply at the last statement.

"She what? When did Princess Yuffie…"

"She joined them when Spike fought her to a standstill despite being at a disadvantage. I think she was secretly impressed."

"And that is why you aren't shadowing her at this moment?"

The ninja shrugged.

"The group is capable of looking after her without me playing guardian angel. She's their problem now."

"You shouldn't speak of the Princess like that."

"You've got to admit that she is a brat, Cyan. Granted she has the interests of Wutai at heart, but… well, even as a kid she was spamming that SOLDIER's inbox with her so-called 'treasure hunts'."

Cyan sighed, shaking his head ruefully.

"Indeed."

It was at that point that I came into the scene, panting for breath.

"Damned clown is faster than he looks." I mumbled, collapsing.

"He got away?" The ninja asked.

"Managed to duck behind a large group of SOLDIERs. I'm not trying my luck when they're actually prepared."

Cyan gave a sound of approval.

"Nice to see that you aren't over-confident in your abilities. It's the mark of a wise man when you know when the time to retreat is."

I nodded from my position on the floor.

"Thanks. Who are you again?"

The samurai gave a wry grin.

"I am Lord Cyan of Fort Doma." He introduced himself.

"Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Spike." I managed to say, as I picked myself up.

"Indeed. Shadow mentioned your name, and your affiliation."

"Eh?"

"That you're a member of AVALANCHE."

"Ah, gotcha."

"Now, enough idle gossip. Now that we have numbers on our side, let us go and kill that 'clown' before the opportunity is lost forever."

---

'Numbers on our side' clearly didn't mean much, when Shadow just vanished the moment we began to move. Yeah, yeah, he was being a ninja and therefore striking from the shadows… that sounded really lame. Shadow striking from the shadows… ouch.

Still, the dog, Interceptor, trotted at Cyan's side, though the judging from the wary looks that Cyan kept giving it, he either wasn't a dog person, or he just didn't like Interceptor. Going by the fact that it looked like the dog was smirking every time Cyan glanced at it, I'll go by the latter.

Around that point, a pair of SOLDIERs leapt out, swords at the ready.

As I had mentioned before to Cyan and Shadow, now that they're actually prepared, they're actually pretty tough opponents. The element of surprise and the fact that everyone was getting in each other's way before was the reason that I was able to kill a number at the start of this.

Now, we had a pair of ready SOLDIERs, whom understood what the hell was going on.

I blocked the first slash against me, hopping back to put some distance between us. The SOLDIER mimicked my hop, with one slight variation: he hopped forwards, negating the usefulness of my hop back. Of course, he was also swinging that broad sword of his around for take 2 while he was at it.

Clumsily ducking under the second slash, I lashed out with my fist, catching the SOLDIER in the stomach. And then I swore as it felt as though I had just punched a brick wall.

The SOLDIER openly laughed at my expense, swinging his blade around. If I hadn't rolled out of the way, it was highly likely that my head would be taking a trip away from my neck. A permanent trip.

Really, despite the weirdness that goes on within it, I'm rather attached to my head, so I'd rather it not go flying off without the rest of me. The fact that this SOLDIER had tried to do such was… worrisome, as to be fair, for whatever reason, the rest of the world had generally gone for moves that wouldn't be a permanent death. Or even a quick death. This guy had just tried to decapitate me.

I wasn't given a chance to dwell on that fact, however, as the SOLDIER came in for another try.

I blocked his blade with my own, grunting as the sheer force of the SOLDIER's attack sent shockwaves running through my system. I was then forced to duck as my opponent swung his leg around. I had no idea whether or not SOLDIER used steel toecaps, and even if they didn't, I really didn't want to be kicked by a SOLDIER anyway.

Cyan didn't seem to be having much luck with his own opponent. Their styles, even to my untrained eye, just didn't mesh well. Cyan used a lot of counter-attacks, holding his katana firmly in two hands, he would parry a blow and the while the opponent was still registering the fact, come in with a powerful attack of his own. Only his opponent was like a child hyped up on sugar, he was in, and out before you knew it.

My opponent was relentless. He would get in my face and attack, attack and keep attacking. Any attempt I made to gain some breathing room was negated, promptly. I had no chance to counter-attack, no chance to plan, no chance to do jack-all. I couldn't even gather any energy for magic attacks. This would have been the ideal time to summon or cast Fira or something, but no, I hadn't the chance too.

You know what, give me Cyan's opponent. The guy likes to move, I can deal with that.

"Swap." I grunted, hopping back, so that Cyan and I were next to each other.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noted that Cyan gave a small nod.

As my opponent made another particularly vicious looking swing at me, I leapt back, twisting around to face the other SOLDIER, while Cyan swung his katana and blocked the attack of the SOLDIER I had previously been struggling against.

My new opponent, a tall lanky guy, held the same type of sword as his partner; I'm assuming that the blade is the SOLDIER standard. His style of hit and run was also useless against me. He learnt that the hard way.

The SOLDIER hopped in, swung his sword at me, and on my blocking it, hopped far enough back that any counter-attack on my end. Except, he clearly didn't consider the fact that I was using a blade that could be used as a gun.

The SOLDIER yelped when I shot at him, barely deflecting the bullet with his blade in time. And then he had to deflect a second. And a third. Around that point, he realized that distance against me, was most likely not the wisest of choices. To be honest, no it wasn't. I don't get tired out when shooting bullet, where he get's tired out from deflecting the things. A game of endurance, at this range, was an easy win on my end.

And it was thus he hopped back up to me, blade swinging in an attempt to emulate his partner's style of combat.

He was clearly not very good at it.

This SOLDIER had neither the speed, nor the aggressiveness that his partner had, so for me, it was much easier to defend against. He was still good enough that any openings were invisible to my inexperienced eye, but hey, I'd still rather fight this guy then the other one.

Besides, this guy didn't account for the fact that I have a tail. In fact, he seemed to have tunnel vision, he was ignoring everything but me. His loss.

The SOLDIER gasped as my tail coiled around his sword-arm, preventing a slash. While he tried to free himself, I swung my weapon in a downwards arc, driving it through his collar-bone and into his upper chest. He began to cough up blood, a sign that I'd managed to cut into his lungs. He had no sympathy from me.

Releasing his arm, I kicked him in the stomach region, sending him sliding along the length of the weapon that was impaled into him, eventually freeing my blade from his flesh. With my weapon no longer holding him up, he just sort of became gravity's bitch a fell to the floor. Hard.

Gravity is a harsh mistress at times.

I looked away for two seconds, and then suddenly some arsehole decided that I wanted a grenade. Minus the pin.

Swearing enough to make Barret blush with embarrassment, I dived away from the explosive. I didn't get far enough to completely avoid the explosion, but I was relatively unharmed, if a dozen or so yards away from where I'd been previously. Looking up, and found the Shinra grunt responsible having his throat ripped out by Interceptor.

Cyan finished off his opponent and wiped the blade clean before sheathing it.

But my attention wasn't on the samurai. It was more on the machine that had marched up to us, twin machine guns pointed at him.

"Crap…" I muttered, leaping to my feet and launching myself at Cyan, pushing him to the ground.

Luckily, I was in time to help him avoid the hail of machine gun fire. Not very gracefully, but we were both alive, that was the important detail.

The large red machine turned slightly, scanning both myself and the samurai. And behind the machine, I could see a tail attached to it. Something about this thing is familiar. Like a feeling of déjà vu? I don't think I've ever seen this thing in my life though…

A click was all the warning we had before it unleashed another hail of bullets at us. Fortunately, a click was all we needed. Both Cyan and myself dived in opposite directions, dodging out of the way of the gunfire.

For a moment the vaguely scorpion shaped machine seemed at a loss as to which target it should go for, before it beeped a couple of times and turned to face me. I feel so loved, being a priority target.

Of course, facing me meant that the machine had left its back vulnerable to Cyan and his katana. Seeing the opening for what it was, the samurai moved in, unleashing a flurry of blows.

You know what the one problem with fighting machines is though? It's the fact that, unlike humans, you can't tell how effective an attack is, because they aren't exactly about to go 'ooh, that hurt' or 'ARRRG!' The only indication that Cyan's attack had done anything was the sparks, and that was probably just the result of his sword connecting with the armour or something.

I would normally make a comment about how much my opponent of the fight disliked being attacked, but as I'd already mentioned, it was a machine, and therefore, emotionless.

It must have known that being hit was a bad thing though. Because that scorpion-like tail swung out and almost hit Cyan. Fortunately, the samurai had good reflexes, and was able to avoid the attack.

I couldn't let Cyan have all the fun though.

Focusing, I released a Thundara, the bolt of electricity slamming into the machine. Whilst it was suffering from the electrical overload that it had been forcibly introduced to, it gave off these strange sounds. It also shook a lot.

I took the opportunity to move in and attack, but it recovered quicker than I anticipated, and I was forced to twist my body around to avoid being pumped full of hot lead. The nearest machine gun was within reach, so I threw myself forwards, grabbing onto the weapon and swinging myself up so that I was standing on the oversized gun.

The machine clearly knew that I was there, but it couldn't seem to register a way to get me off, so it appeared to shift its focus onto Cyan, lifting the tail up so that it was peeking over its head. Nothing good could come of that.

My last statement was proven true when the end of the tail pointed itself at Cyan, and released a beam of laser.

The samurai managed to leap over the beam of superheated energy, so he wasn't cut in two.

Muttering under my breath, I thrust my gunblade into the 'chest' of this scorpion wannabe. It took a fair amount of effort to actually penetrate the armour of the machine. Once I felt the blade was stabbed in deep enough, I leapt from the machine gun, grip tight on my weapon, and used my momentum and gravity to tear this heap of junk a new one.

Back on the ground, the scorpion bot decided to shift its focus back to me.

Taking a deep breath, I focused on my enemy skill Materia and exhaled a good dose of fire. I managed to maintain the fire breath long enough that I managed to melt one of the two machine guns, but the other, while hot, was still operational. And it swivelled around to aim at me.

"Crappit!" I cursed, diving.

My dive saved my from death, but I still felt a number of the bullets graze me.

Shadow chose that moment to appear, katana in hand. I don't know if it's some kind of ninja trick, or whether he has some spell or something, but he just literally appeared in the air, freefalling towards the machine. Once he was close enough, he swung his katana and managed to slice through the still working machine gun… and completely sliced it off.

Cyan then charged in and executed a move that strongly reminded me of Cloud's climhazzard. He stabbed his own katana into the gash that I had torn in the armour. However, rather than leaping upwards, he began to run up the scorpion bot's body, hunching low enough that he could continue to drag his sword through the machine's insides.

Once he reached his climax, Cyan leapt from the machine, and pivoted around in mid-air, adding several more slashes to the mix, before landing on his feet.

I stepped in, energies surrounding me. Despite being a fair distance from the machine, I swung my blade in vicious slashes. Obviously, at this range, slashes were hardly going to hit the machine, but I smirked, watching the air distort with each slash. The distortion appeared to fly towards the machine, where they connected, and then each slash appeared on the machine itself.

Limit Breaks are awesome. Feats of power that kick ass in ways you'd never normally be able to.

The machine shuddered, before finally collapsing.

"The clown escaped." Shadow said, without hesitation.

"What? How?" I asked, annoyed.

I'd wanted to kick that clown's ass.

"Helicopter. Without him, the rest of the Shinra forces are suffering from a lack of morale. The samurai are winning this battle."

"I should think so." Cyan huffed. "We're much better trained than the Shinra military. What of the SOLDIER?"

"Left with Kefka. Even Kefka isn't fool enough to throw away SOLDIER's like that. Rufus would have his head."

"Shame. It would have been nice if the President did our job for us." I commented.

"Alas, life is not so easy." Cyan shook his head. "However, we should not relax just yet, there **are** still Shinra infantry about, and it would be a most shameful way to die, being killed due to our letting our guard down."

A snort from Shadow told us what he thought of that.

"Let us go and finish of the remains of the Shinra…" Cyan commanded, readying his katana again, and charging off.

"Friendly guy." I said, aloud.

"To a fault. He often let's his emotions get the better of him. He was rather restrained today."

"Right… I suppose you're going to help clear out the remaining Shinra?"

"If it helps me get my pay quicker."

"I thought you had to kill the captain to get the pay?"

"That was for the bonus."

I didn't get a chance to say anything else, as he pulled out a kunai and threw it at a Shinra infantryman who had just come into view. With nary a word, he stalked off, katana held lightly.

Shaking my head, I readied my own weapon. Best finish off the Shinra here. Sooner Shadow get's his pay, sooner he finishes taking me to Wutai.

* * *

AN:::

Yeah, yeah, the ending was crap. Like I said, the original was ruined, and I couldn't remember the exact sequence of events or the words used... I hate my luck sometimes. Still, if I ever get the chance, maybe I'll come back an improve it at some point, but for now, this is it.


	30. Calm Before the Storm

And it is thus that my internet dies AGAIN!!! Ok, scratch that, my entire computer upped and shot itself in the hard-drive… with a bazooka. For ages I had no computer, and I only got a completely reformatted one literally weeks before Christmas. Yeah, that's some present isn't it?

And then I fall ill, and as I write this Author's note, my voice is distinctly missing in action. Yeah, I've lost my voice... again... and any attempt at speaking louder than a strangled gasp that sounds like I'm trying to whisper while out of breath tends to bring up a rather nasty cough. I know this shouldn't have much to do with the lateness of this chapter, but it left me feeling bad enough that I didn't even want to touch the computer… Migraines don't help either… Oh, nor the fall I had which knackered up my knee something bad. I still can't put any weight on it, or bend it… or even look at it without much pain.

Word of advise: if you slip on the icy pavement (which happened to be on a steep hill, and considering the pavement was right next to a school, you'd think they'd have at least made the effort to grit the sidewalk, but I digress), do not be extremely stubborn and still try to get to the shop at the bottom of the road despite the very painful limp you now have. I did just that and ended up slipping a second time, so my knee felt even worse, and my back was now in pain, and I wasn't able to actually get up for five minutes so I just lay there in the street in shock. Had to hobble along the middle of the road just to get back up the hill, seeing as the road was ice free… moral of the story, being stubborn hurts like a bitch.

* * *

Chapter 29: Calm before the Storm

The Wutai capital. It looked like your standard oriental themed city; that is to say… It looked nothing like any city I'd ever been to before and was now just claiming that it looked like a standard oriental city like I was an expert.

Yes, I am incredibly idiotic like that.

It had been two days since I'd arrived, parting ways with Shadow almost as soon as I had put a single foot within the city limits. Guess my presence was too awesome for him to cope with. Or maybe he just went off looking for a mama to slit the throat of for a nickel. Whichever seems more likely.

I'd spent those two days that I was in the capital in a small hotel. It wasn't a five star joint, even with my saved gil, I could never afford to stay in a high class hotel for any longer than a day. No, I'd rate the hotel at a meagre three stars.

In my new found spare time, I had learnt how to eat using chopsticks, and was thus enjoying my chow mein the way it was supposed to be eaten. I'd also found that Spike (as in the internal lizard that won't leave my brain) could understand native Wutainese. I'd been shocked at this discovery, wondering how it was possible.

It turned out that Wutainese was the Mandarin dialect of Chinese… Spike's native tongue, so to speak, pun not intended.

Really, what should I have expected? The little bastard **is **a _Physignathus cocincinus; _or a **Chinese** Water Dragon, if you will. It's only natural that he know **some** form of the Chinese language, what with it being his cultural heritage.

It would have been nicer if he'd at least informed me of this before I made a fool of myself by trying to speak what very little Japanese I know, somehow getting the impression that Wutainese translated into Japanese. And by very little, I mean all I know is how to say 'hello', 'bastard', 'hyena' (seriously, don't ask), 'jaw' and 'what'. So there I was calling myself a bastard hyena in Japanese, while the poor sod I was trying to talk to gave me odd looks, trying to tell me he couldn't understand a word I was saying, all the while, the lizard within was giggling at me.

Oh, and it turns out even Montblanc could understand Wutainese.

I hate being left out of the loop.

Eventually, Spike decided that he'd had enough fun at my expense and told me what to say to whoever I was talking to if they couldn't speak English, or whatever the Gaian equivalent was. I got the impression that he made me insult myself a time or two, if the giggles from both Montblanc and the lizard within were any indication. It didn't help that I was given odd looks from time to time.

"Wǒ shì yī gè liè gǒu." I repeated the demon residing in my head.

"Nǐ kàn qǐ lái xiàng yī gè xī yì." The young Wutain woman giggled, looking like she was admiring me.

_You didn't just make me flirt with her did you?_

'_No, nothing like that.' _Spike reassured me.

Mentally rolling my eyes, I quoted the next thing Spike told me to say. The woman pondered for several seconds before shaking her head. She said something, which Spike instantly translated into 'Not that I've seen'.

"Xiè xie nín.' I bowed.

The woman bowed back, before walking away. I sighed, shaking my head and looking around at the busy marketplace. For a while, I'd been afraid that I'd arrived here too late, and that the rest of AVALANCHE had already been here and moved on. That was why I was in the market, asking if anyone had seen any of the members of AVALANCHE, or, something that tended to get more direct answers, had 'Princess Yuffie' been home recently.

No matter what I asked, nobody had seen my teammates. This at least gave me hope that I hadn't been left behind, but it also gave me the problem of what to do while waiting, and how to make certain that I wasn't left behind when AVALANCHE did get here. In the end, all I could do was continue to ask around and hope that I ask someone who sees them while they're in town.

It was dull, it was boring, it was also necessary.

I was forced to pause in my sulking when one of the people behind the stalls tapped my shoulder and started speaking rapidly in Wutainese. Holding up my hand, he paused, and I asked him an important question.

"Nín shuō Yīng yǔ ma?"

The man smiled for a moment.

"Yes, I do." He answered, speaking in the one language in which I am fluent. Well, unless one counts 'Bad English' as its own independent language, like Bruce Willis does.

"Thanks, care to repeat what you saying before?"

The man nodded.

"I was asking whether you'd like to buy some foot wraps. Fall is approaching, which means that the temperature will start dropping. Going bare foot is probably a bad idea."

"Ah… foot wraps?"

"Somehow, assuming that you really are a giant lizard, I seriously doubt that we'd be fitting shoes on **those **feet." The man grunted, pointedly looking at my feet.

Following his gaze, yes, I had forgotten that with my metamorphosis, my feet were hardly the appropriate shape for footwear.

"And you just happen to sell foot wraps?" I asked, sceptically.

"During the summer, the lower classes of Wutai prefer wearing them. Only people who don't are those with military backgrounds, Godo, and the five within the Pagoda. I'm just trying to get rid of the last of my stock before no-one else will buy them for another year."

I crossed my arms.

"And came to me because I was wearing nothing." I frowned. "Fine, I'll take a couple."

The man shoved four leather socks into my arms. Looking at them, I felt slightly cheated. They were just leather strips, somehow wrapped in such a way that they were essentially toeless and heel-less socks; if my coat was damaged beyond repair, I could always cut several (supposedly behemoth hide) strips that would work just as well.

Still, being told that it was only two gil, I just rolled my eyes and flipped him a couple of coins which he caught.

"Say, has the Princess Yuffie been home lately?" I asked.

"Not that I am aware of." The man shrugged.

Frowning, I turned away for a moment, gathering my thoughts. I turned back to the man, intent on being polite and thanking him for selling me the socks, if for no other reason than to be polite.

The man was gone, along with his stall.

Blinking, I scanned the crowds, but found no sign of the man, or his stall. Sighing, I took a seat at a nearby bench and began to pull on my all new leather socks. Once I was done, I looked at the end result.

_Looks ok, I suppose._

'_Those might be a godsend when bad weather hits though. Just picture walking on snow in bare feet…'_

I shuddered at the thought. Ok, suddenly I find myself respecting the decision to buy these foot wraps. The Icicle Inn would still be a pain in the ass to visit if ever we go there. All that snow… that coldness…

I shuddered again, and felt the lizard within give a shudder of his own, a very weird sensation, since he was in my mind, and thus had no physical body with which **to** shudder.

* * *

"I have done as you asked, young one." The aged man who had just recently sold a pair of foot wraps to me grunted, bowing his head.

"Thank you." Jade mumbled, a frown marring her features.

"Is there something troubling you?"

"Nothing really." The PS2 shook her head, handing the man something.

The man took a look at the item and his eyes widened in disbelief.

"This, this is for real?" He asked, breathlessly.

"Yes. Now go, give your family a large meal in celebration of your nephew's birth."

Smiling widely, the man ran off, after repeatedly thanking the PS2, who grinned back at the display of happiness. Once he was gone, the frown returned to her face as she turned and exited the alley from the other side.

Her eyes drifted to the entrance to the city, locking onto a robed figure.

"Hello… now who might you be?" She asked herself, rhetorically. "You aren't one of mine."

The figure looked around for several moments, eyes missing Jade, due to her being hidden within the shadows of the building that she was leaning against. Seeming to think that it was in the clear, the hooded figure moved forwards, flowing through the crowds.

"What are you up to?" Jade mused.

Suspicion lacing her thoughts, Jade moved to follow, completely blending into the crowds.

* * *

I had finally found a constructive use of my time. I had been constantly meaning to ask either Tifa or Yuffie, but had never had the time to, however time was something I seemed to have a little too much of at the moment.

What new way had I found to spend time on?

Being taught the basics of martial arts.

Yes, what few times I'd had to use my fists in battle everything had been fine, but even I could tell that it was just skin of my teeth, making-this-shit-up-as-I-go-along, plain ol' brawling.

Even street fighters had to learn the basics of actual fighting, and street fighting's loose style held an appeal to me.

True, even if I were to fully learn and master a style of martial arts, I'd still go brawling rather than going through the moves of whatever martial art, but that would be more out of desire to be more unpredictable, and let's face it, no martial arts in all of Gaia accounted for the presence of claws and a tail. Both the claws (and talons, as I tend to call the toenails) and tail meant that unarmed attacks took a slightly different meaning with me. Scratches were actually a valid choice of attack, and fancy spinning kicks? Yeah, I spin, they get a face full of tail… if anybody makes an innuendo out of that, I **will** claw their eyes out.

Speaking of the tail; who needs arms and hands to grapple people when you can use your tail for just that.

Anyway, it's more of a fall-back plan. I'm hardly going to copy Tifa and start punching steel robots, I have a 'potentially legendary' gunblade that I can't lose, and a knife. Really, this is more a formality, but whatever.

Besides, what if I'm forced into a martial arts competition or some such? Highly unlikely; yes… but considering that I'm a guy that was sucked into a videogame, highly unlikely may as well translate into 'may very well happen'.

Or maybe I'm just over-thinking these things.

Besides, Tifa had been telling me I should at least learn something, back before I fell off a mountain.

Did I ever punch Seifer in the face for that? Truce or not, he deserved a good punch to his jaw for sending us tumbling off a mountain like that.

I'm rambling. I think I mentioned back near the beginning of my tale that I did that from time to time. I wish I didn't, it feels like I'm trying to talk 'till the end of time.

What was the point of all this again? Ah: I was being taught martial arts by instructor Sabin. Weird thing was that despite being the best martial artist in Wutai, he wasn't Wutainese, if anything, he looked like he was from around the Nibelheim area, he did feel similar to Cloud. It was… the posture? No, besides, Cloud's posture shows the fruit of his training as a SOLDIER. I can't really describe it, but he just feels like he was from around the same area as Nibelheim.

Upon entering the dojo, I was slightly disappointed that no Yakuza mobsters started leaping around challenging me to a duel of honour for whatever reason. Clearly all those cheesy martial arts movies I wasted my youth on were lying about that small detail. Shame, I kinda wanted to do an Indiana Jones and just shoot one after a fancy display of martial arts.

At any rate, I am learning from a true master… at a rate comparable to a snail. Sabin was optimistic about the rate that I was learning, all grins that actually reached his eyes, proving his honesty, but I really couldn't see where his optimism was coming from. I was lousy at this whole martial art business.

Well, I did manage to learn how to throw a punch properly, and all the safety guides therein, like not to fully straighten my elbow during the punch, etcetera, etcetera.

Is it a sad thing that I am shocked I even got that?

The day ended with me exhausted from all the training. Sabin claimed that I was doing rather well, and that he could already see definite improvements. I couldn't see it, and outright told him that he was clearly delusional. He just laughed me off, patted me on the back, which hurt even though it was simply a friendly pat, and went off to do… whatever the hell Sabin does when not teaching anthromorphic lizards how to throw a proper punch.

Left in the darkening city, I made my way back to my hotel room, checking just how much Gil I had left.

Enough.

Giving a smile and a wave at the receptionist, who grinned back in greeting, I made my way to my room. I probably mentioned before, but a lack of sweat glands meant that my clothes weren't all stinky after the extensive exercise I've been through today, hell, a whiff of my armpits smelled vaguely of the deodorant I'd used that morning, and not tainted with the horrible smell usually associated with armpits.

Still, after today, I felt a dire need to shower regardless. I wondered, briefly, whether this was simply a habit that carried over from when I was still human, when exercise made me stink bad enough to be used as a super biological weapon. I didn't dwell on the thought, simply deciding that after the stress I'd induced upon my body, it would feel nice to run a nice hot shower simply and remain there for a good hour or so.

* * *

Across the city, a robed figure walked out from an alleyway, eyes scanning the street both ways. On the discovery that the street was empty, he moved into a nearby building, pushing the door open with ease. He was forced to blink as his eyes adjusted to the change in lighting as he moved to the bar and sat upon an empty stool.

"Kuroshu." He grunted, as the bartender looked towards his latest customer.

Nodding, the man behind the counter pulled out a bottle and a small cup, placing them before his latest customer, before moving to another customer.

Taking a sip, the robed man turned to the person seated next to him, examining her before nodding to himself.

"Nín shuō Yīng yǔ ma?" He asked.

The woman turned her violet eyes to him, eyes drilling into him with an intensity that almost made him squirm.

"I do." She finally grunted, taking a sip of rice wine.

"May I ask you whether you've seen a lizard-like being around here recently?"

The woman didn't appear to have heard him, and he was about to repeat himself when she spoke.

"I see no reason why it is any of your business." She grunted, flicking a strand of hair from her face. "I know **of** the one you speak of, but I've not seen him around these parts."

The robed man frowned, returning to his drink, though occasionally shooting glances at the woman next to him.

"I'd keep the eyes to yourself if I were you." The woman spoke after the forth time. "You have no chance."

The man quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't react, though he didn't look at her again until after he finished his drink and got up, placing a couple of Gil next to his empty bottle.

Once he was gone, the woman turned to face the man sitting on her other side.

"What do you think he wanted with the kid?" She asked.

The biker-gangster look-alike furrowed his brow.

"Beats me." He shrugged. "Why, you feeling concern for the lizard-brat?"

"He's interesting. Something about him…"

"Interesting enough that you went and kicked him in the balls."

"Now you sound like **you're **the one feeling concern." She smirked.

"You kicked a guy in the balls! I might not like the brat, but nobody, not even he deserved **that.**"

"He threw me in the garbage."

Shaking his head, the biker-gangster chugged down some of his drink.

"You're going to make us both stalk him, aren't you?" He asked, sounding annoyed.

"Nooo." She shook her head. "I'm only going to make **you** stalk him. I plan on stalking the lizard."

"…You're as bad as Tseng. Does having a week off mean nothing to you?"

"Sure it does." The woman grinned, making the man shudder at the sight of her too-large canine. "It means that we don't have to bend over backwards for a bunch of paper pushers and a spoilt brat, and actually do as we please, including making sure a certain lizard is returned safely to the rest of AVALANCHE."

"AVALANCHE are the enemy, in case you've forgotten. Why help them regain strength?"

"'Cos I like this new AVALANCHE." She shrugged. "You remember the originals, don't you? You really want to put to chance that a third generation AVALANCHE will follow the example of the originals?"

The gangster look-alike shook his head, chugging down even more of his drink.

"You're just justifying your crush on the brat."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he stilled, afraid to look at the woman next to him, but feeling compelled to do so. She was glaring at him so fiercely, his mind made him think her eyes were glowing. Absently, he noted that the bartender had also stilled, staring wide-eyed at the woman.

"I'll put that remark down as having had too much to drink." She said, sounding far too calm. "But make it again…" She left the threat hanging.

Swallowing, the man nodded his head.

"I'll just go catch up with the robed man." He squeaked, before rushing out of the tavern.

The bartender spoke up, looking at the woman in fascination.

"How did your eyes glow?"

The woman smirked at him.

"Family secret." She answered, putting down enough Gil pay for both her drinks and those of the man who'd just left.

* * *

The robed man stopped walking in the middle of a bridge, turning around sharply.

"What do you want with Spike?" Jade asked, glaring.

"Well, if it isn't the Little Goddess of the world." He smirked in reply. "I'm surprised you deign fit to speak to a lowly mortal such as I."

Jade's glare deepened at his words.

"Answer the question!" She snapped.

The man chose to ignore her, speaking seemingly to himself.

"Actually, I truly **am** surprised that you chose to interfere. Most of your kind seem too focused on letting things play out without getting involved. Tell me, how many have died that could have been saved? All it would have taken was a little divine intervention and they would still be among the living. How many families have been torn asunder due to deaths that you allow, looking on calmly? What thoughts race through your minds, watching these innocent people die because they were thrust into a position that they were ill prepared for, all because of you and the rest of your kind? Are they experiments to you? See if this dorky kid can survive this, or that lonely girl can take on this challenge?

"Are you here in person because you want to watch the lizard die in person? And what of those who fail in their tasks, but survive? Do you simply kill them?"

All through the man's monologue, Jade's glare deepened, fists clenched so tightly, her nails were digging into her skin.

"Who are you?"

"Ah, that is an interesting question? What's a name? I have many names, though lately I have become known as 'Shade'. Really, I'd prefer to be known as 'Death', but how would that go in a casual conversation: 'Hi, my name is Death'. Hardly subtle, is it?"

"Shade, hmm? Real clever." Jade drawled sarcastically.

"Isn't it though?" Shade beamed. "Really though, I have my Goddess to thank for the name. Actually, scratch that, I have her to thank for my whole identity."

"Goddess? After you so elegantly badmouth me and others you seem to view as divine beings?"

"Ah, but **my** Goddess is different. **My** Goddess isn't a watcher, but a worker. She strives towards a goal, a noble and brilliant goal, worthy of utmost respect."

"You're a cultist, following some fraud Goddess." The PS2 shook her head.

"You **dare** to mock the Goddess?!" Shade screamed out. "Your kind, you are the frauds. Really, you're not Gods, you're Demons. Devils. The worst kind of scum."

"I've been called a Devil before. I think the term suits me." Jade smirked. "But in the real world, there are **no **Gods and Demons."

Shade took several deep breaths, calming himself, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small cylinder.

"You might not believe in my Goddess, but she has lent me a fraction of her strength. Enough to temporarily dispel you; force you back to your realm."

Saying that, he shattered the cylinder.

* * *

I woke up gasping, images of my nightmare swimming around in my mind.

Rubbing my forehead, I willed the images away, reaching for the glass of water on the bedside table. Gulping it down, I tried to remember the specifics of my nightmare, but as with most dreams, the moment I was awake, I couldn't remember anything more than a basic feeling associated with whatever had plagued my dreams. It was fear. Typical nightmare then.

Sliding out of the bed, I rubbed my eyes and moved towards the pile of clothing, left in the corner where I'd tossed them the night previously before I'd gone into the bathroom to have a shower. Bending over, I scooped all the clothing into my arms.

"Nice arse."

Yelping, I dropped the clothes and pivoted around. Sitting on my windowsill, looking vaguely amused, was a woman with pale violet hair and matching eyes. I recognised her instantly, despite the fact that she wasn't wearing the usual navy blue suit, instead wearing a white t-shirt and tracksuit pants.

"Tia!" I gaped in shock.

"Though, I never pictured you to be the type to sleep in the buff." Tia smirked.

Blushing, I stuttered as I tried to defend myself.

"Relax lizard-lips; I know you just collapsed in bed after your shower yesterday. You looked beat; all that martial arts training must really be exhausting." She commented, smug tone in her voice.

"You've been spying on me?" I finally found my voice.

"Nope, sheer chance that I happened to walk by and noticed you training with Sabin."

"And how you know that I went straight to sleep after my shower?" I growled.

"Ok, that was the scene I witnessed just after I decided to spy on you." She shrugged carelessly, as if it were no big deal.

"You watched me sleep all night?"

"What can I say? Your tush was worth waiting for. I can't speak for the other side, lizard anatomy and all that."

Blushing I turned and grabbed my clothes, prompting a wolf whistle from the Turk behind me. Focusing on the Storage Materia, a pulled out a specific item and tossed it over my shoulder.

"Eat grenade." I said, as she caught the grenade, and moved into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me, though not before I heard a yelp as she realized what she caught.

There was no boom, naturally, since I hadn't pulled the pin from the explosive. Once Tia realized that, I heard her shout through the door:

"That was a dirty trick."

Rolling my eyes, I pulled on my clothes and brushed my teeth, spending extra long just to delay my leaving the room and re-entering her presence. Once I was done, I opened the door to find Tia giggling at her cell-phone.

"What do you think? I think the lighting could have been better, but then it was a spur of the moment photo."

"You took a photo of my arse?" I shrieked, moving to snatch the phone from her grip, however, she danced out of the way and continued giggling. "Delete it!" I demanded.

"Aww, but I bet President Rufus would love to use it as target practice." She pouted.

"Don't care, it goes." I snarled.

"Fine, fine." She sighed. "Don't you even want to see it?"

Not giving me a chance to answer, she thrust the phone in my face, showing me a picture of Reno ruffling Cel's hair. I glared at the photo and then at Tia.

"That was a dirty trick." I repeated her words.

"Payback." She smirked.

"Why do you feel the need to spy on me now?" I asked, moving away from her and opening the door to my room.

All good cheer left Tia's face.

"Someone was asking around about you."

"Really?" I perked up.

Maybe Cloud and co were asking around for me… With that thought in mind, I exited the hotel. Unfortunately, Tia insisted on walking side by side with me.

"It wasn't anyone we knew. Robed guy, dark hair, stupidly pale. The way he walked, the way he moved in general; he's a killer."

"You can tell he was a killer from the way he moved?" I asked, sceptically.

"You've been in the Turks as long as I have; you see all kinds of people. I've seen my share of killers; they always have a way of moving, it's subtle, but its there. He also had a look in his eyes. I don't trust him."

I crossed my arms and stared at her.

"You don't trust a guy asking after me, so you decide to keep an eye on me? Despite the fact I'm your enemy, and don't think I've forgotten or forgiven the fact that I may never have children after what you did to me."

"Oh come on, I kicked you in the joy department, it wasn't that bad."

I rolled my eyes heavenwards and muttered under my breath something that shouldn't be repeated.

"Joy department injury aside, you might be an enemy, but that doesn't mean I hate you, or even dislike you. You're interesting. I look at you and feel…"

"If you say anything perverted and-slash-or implying that you love me; then forget it." I shot at her.

"…I look at you and I'm reminded of my brother." She finally said.

I stopped walking and stared at her, eyebrow ridges raised. Tia kept moving for a couple of steps before rotating around and looking me in the eye.

"Run that by me again?" I finally asked.

"When I look at you, I'm reminded of my older brother, shortly before he went missing. Granted, you seem happier than him, but all the same, I look at you and I see him staring back at me."

"I thought Turks had no family." I mumbled.

Tia shot out a bark of laughter.

"Right, we join the Turks and then suddenly any relatives just mysteriously vanish into the null void of despair. No, if you want the truth, in the case of those of us who still have immediate family, we change our names. Family can and will be used against us."

"So Tia Mataha is…"

"My given name. My brother went missing **long** before I joined the Turks, I never had a father and my mother is dead."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not. For what she did, she deserved worse." Tia snapped.

"All right, I'm sorry that I'm sorry." I raised my arms in defence. "I won't even ask."

"Thank you." Tia said, softly.

We resumed walking, this time in silence.

"You've been busy since you were separated from AVALANCHE." Tia finally said. "You put the fear of Minerva into Kefka, not that he'll admit it."

"It didn't take much." I shrugged. "He asked me whether he looked like a waiter and then fled."

I hesitated a moment.

"How did you know that I was separated from the others?"

"I have my sources. You were separated after you fell from the rope-bridge at the Nibel Pass. They searched for you, a whole week, but it was as if you'd vanished."

I shot her a look at the knowledge that she knew.

"And you claim you've only recently began to spy on me?" I asked.

"As I said, I have my sources. Kind of surprised to find you in Wutai though, and not too far ahead of when the rest of your party will be arriving."

"Cloud should be here soon?" I asked, hope clear for all to hear.

"At the rate he and the rest of the group have been moving, chasing after the Wutain princess, I'd say they'll be here around noon, give or take depending on how many monsters get in their way."

"I'm going to wager a guess that Yuffie stole everyone's Materia."

"You guess right." Tia shrugged. "She's already in the city, but she's good enough that I lost track of her shortly afterwards. If any of us know where she is right now, it'd be Tsang, and good luck getting anything from him."

"Well, even if this guy looking for me for less than benign reasons, I'll be safe once I'm reunited with them."

Tia rolled her eyes, muttering something, though I didn't catch what it was. Probably something about my confidence and how it should be more contained. At that moment, her PHS started ringing.

"Stay here." She commanded, pulling out the phone. "I have to take this, may be important."

I just shrugged, watching as she walked to the side, phone at her ear. I turned around and paused, staring down an alleyway. I could have sworn I just saw Yuffie sprinting down there. I shot a glance at Tia, who was talking animatedly at her phone, facing away from me.

'_Well, she has no business giving us orders.' _Spike rationalized for me.

Finding that to be true, I gave one last look at the Turk before casually wondering off while her back was still facing me. The alley was poorly lit, the sun being mostly blocked by the buildings either side of me. There wasn't any sign that anybody had come through this way recently, but I **had **seen somebody, even if it wasn't Yuffie I saw.

Passing by a cat, which hissed at me before running off, I turned a corner, glancing either down any adjacent alleyways that I passed, brow furrowed.

Maybe I should have stayed with Tia; I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. I'd already learnt that movies lied to me, back when Barret, Cait and I had been unable to fix the buggy. However, this wasn't just a fact learnt from movies, but from reading the news as well. Dark alleyways were where muggers, murderers and rapists generally struck. Sometimes it wasn't even dark alleyways but nicely lit and fairly well traversed alleyways.

I considered turning back. It felt like I was being watched, but looking in every direction revealed nothing. The buildings didn't even have windows that overlooked these alleys. A blind spot where anything could happen.

Turning, I planned on leaving the way I'd come. My hand twitched, ready to pull my gunblade into existence.

I felt the sword swinging before I heard it, and dived forwards, twisting myself around. Despite my best efforts, I wasn't able to land properly and found myself on the ground rather than on my feet. I didn't get a chance to examine the one who'd swung at me before I was rolling away from whoever it was in an attempt to get to my feet. Either the attacker was sloppy, or they decided to let me get myself to my feet, because I didn't hear them swinging at me again.

"At last we meet." The attacker spoke once I was upright.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

AN:: It was short, it was a long time coming (damned computer), and I had hoped for better. Lack of action, but that can't be blamed on me... besides, no stoy is 100% action, we need breaks for those exposition chapters... though I doubt this chapter really counts as exposition.

I was doing a little experimenting with this chapter. Tell me what you think, and all that and I'll see about how to go about future chapters. Next chapter will be in two or three weeks, though there may be an interlude chapter in between, depending on how I'm feeling.

Again, sorry for the delay, I didn't ask my computer to die, but it went and did it anyway.


	31. Filler

So… yea… I'm aware that this is late, and I really am sorry. Shortly after the last chapter was uploaded I had a nervous breakdown which really messed me up, and after which my writing ability was shot to hell. I'm working on the next chapter, though it is slow going as not only do I need to get back into the swing of it, but I also need to triple check myself as I keep making stupid mistakes, like putting 'me' instead of 'my'. It's all these little things that I wouldn't have done near as often before.

Due to it taking so long to actually write the chapter, here's some filler drabbles that I'd written in my spare time, from before my nervous breakdown. I thought I'd had more, but whatever.

* * *

**Camera**

What she never told him was that the picture he saw wasn't the picture she'd been laughing at. Granted, it had been the picture showing on the phone the whole time, but during the night, while he'd slept, she had used a proper camera to take a photo of the cutest thing she'd ever seen. Even if she hadn't already forgiven him, the sight of him all curled up like that, tail twitching as he dreamed…

She was a sucker for cuteness.

So, while he'd slept, out came the camera and now she had a photo of the sleeping teen.

**Crack**

It was after half an hour he turned to me.

'Will you stop fidgeting?' Our illustrious leader snapped at me.

'I can't.' I complained.

'Well why not?' He answered, glaring at me.

'My underwear is riding up.' I answered.

The blonde closed his eyes, looking annoyed. After several seconds, in which I tried to sort out the problem, he finally looked at me again.

'And how is it a problem? Everyone suffers it now and again, and they can simply sort it out.'

'Not everyone has a tail.' I pointed out. 'It keeps on pulling them back up my crack.'

**Scarf**

For one season, the normally hot canyon became a cold hell. Most people enjoyed the change from too hot to function to snows, but it was hell for him. The one time he'd gone out in the stuff, he'd ended up sleeping and almost not waking up. His uncles explained it was because he was cold blooded, but his young mind didn't care why, just that he couldn't.

This year, Uncle Xenor planned leaving for the season, and taking him with. So at the first sign of snow, Uncle Xenor dressed him in warm clothes and wrapped the scarf around his own neck.

'This one thinks a trip to Costa Del Sol will do us both wonders.'

**Yellow**

'Lellow.' He grinned toothily.

'Yellow.' The stranger of his two uncles corrected him.

'Lellow.' He repeated.

'Yel-low.'

'Lel-low.'

The large red eye rolled skyward, and faced the human of the trio, who was openly laughing.

'Does this one amuse you?' Xenor asked, dryly.

'C'mon, you're trying to teach a three year old to speak fluently. He's a kid, let him live a little an' develop more.'

'Shep-poo…'

The human's eye twitched.

'That's Sheppard.' He corrected.

'Shep-poo.'

The human looked at Xenor, who was openly laughing at him.

''Let him live and develop more', he's a three year old.' Xenor quoted.


End file.
